Jubilife High
by Cacooks7
Summary: A boy named Ash has moved from his humble home in Pallet Town to a new home in Twinleaf. Will he adapt? Will he be able to survive in this new high school? Most importantly, will he be able to handle what this mysterious girl is doing to him?
1. Introductions, please!

**Disclaimer : I DO NOT own Pokemon. All rights their respective owners.**

Chapter 1

I woke up that morning to the fresh breeze coming from my window. As I began to regain my senses and forget the dream world, I noticed the breeze was becoming increasingly colder and colder. It was to the point where I was ready to scream.

**_"What the hell?" _**I thought.

I had left my stupid window open all night!

My name's Ash. I came from a peaceful little town called Pallet Town, in the Kanto region. I never really knew my dad, who left when I was very young. That's all right. I have pretty much the greatest mom possible. Yeah, sure, she nags and whines, but hey, whose mom doesn't, am I right?

Recently, my mother was laid off at her work in Pallet Town. Surprising! She was the best worker and made a lot of money there! Anyway, she couldn't find any work in the Kanto region. So that's why we moved here, to the Sinnoh region, specifically Twinleaf. Not too different from Pallet Town, but different nonetheless. This, of course, meant I would have to attend a new school starting September.

We pretty much agreed on the fact that I would attend Jubilife High School. It's not too far, and I already knew someone there: May. She's got the potential of becoming a pokemon trainer or even a coordinator.  
>Here, to begin working with pokemon, you have two options. Either earn a high school diploma, or wait until you are 25 years old. This is so that people don't simply drop school to begin training with pokemon, or else interest in other fields would severely drop.<p>

Me? Sure, I was interested in working with pokemon, but I mean it wasn't my top priority. I wanted to finish school and then hopefully attend Sinnoh University. I was interested in sciences and math, specifically physics. Weird, I know. But I love that stuff!

As for sports, I played soccer and volleyball. I was the volleyball captain on my school team back in Pallet Town and I was also on the soccer team. Standing 6'1 helped a lot too.

Now that you know my story, let's continue, shall we?

I could hear the faint sound of the TV on downstairs and decided it was time to wake up. It was the Sunday before school started, and I was waking up at 7:30 am! Damn the cold September weather...

I got downstairs to see my mom watching the news. I quickly popped some toast into the toaster and took a seat at the table, staring at my books for tomorrow.

"Nervous?" Asked my mother.

To be honest, I really wasn't. I wasn't going there to impress anyone and it would be nice to see May again.

"Um, a little bit I guess"

"Completely normal. Don't worry, you'll be fine"

"Yeah, I know"

After lunch, I decided to spend the last remaining hours of my summer break taking a walk around the neighborhood and getting familiar with the place. After all, I had just moved here and I probably wouldn't have any time to do any of that during school, nor would I want to.

I spent countless hours discovering and testing my memory. By the time I got it right, it was already dusk and my legs were tired. I pulled out my phone to see 6:30 pm. Damn. I told mom I'd be back at 6.

After being told off and eating dinner, I went on my computer to find May online. I was about to talk to her when she beat me to it.

"Hey Ash! You all set for tomorrow?"

"Yeah, haha. Got my bag packed, map, and bus route"

"Great! Trust me, you'll love it here!"

I decided to hit the sack early. I had a big day tomorrow, first day of 11th grade. I made sure my goddamn window was closed, set my alarm, and went to bed.

The next morning was beautiful. I actually ended up waking up before my alarm, obviously due to the fact that I went to bed so early. Seeing such a sunny day excited me, until I came to my senses and remembered that today was my first day at a new high school. Great.

I had a light breakfast. _**"Dangerous,"**_ I thought. **_"You don't know what the hell they serve for lunch there"_**. I quickly pushed the image of green burgers and moldy fries out of my head and headed out the door.

It wasn't until the bus had arrived that the butterflies really started to kick in. I got on and didn't recognize a soul. Also, most of the seats were taken, so I had to sit beside some smelly old man with a gray beard. Gross.

May got on at the next stop, so the butterflies died down. The person across from me got off, leaving two seats free. She sat and invited me to join her. I did.

"Oh my gosh, Ash, it's been since 5th grade! How are you?"

"Not bad, pretty nervous! I know I shouldn't be, I can't help it. Everything's so new to me!"

"Yeah, I hear you. When I moved here I was the same way. But it's great. I can't wait to introduce you to my friends!"

Great. New friends. The two words hit me like bullets. Meeting new people was fun and all, but I hated the fact that there was really no one that I could trust yet, no one to share secrets or feelings to, not even May. It takes a while to develop that kind of friendship, and I had to leave it all behind.

"Can't wait!" I semi-lied.

At the next stop, several people got on and got off. May was looking for something to show me, but I really wasn't interested. Probably some useless knickknack or something.

So I watched everyone get on, and I started to guess what they all were. He's definitely a jock, that guy looks nerdy, she's the ultimate goth.

Then I saw it. I remember this moment like it was yesterday. A slim, fit figure got on the bus. Her body was the kind that just looked so inviting to hug and hold; it looked almost comfortable in a way. Her long blue hair trailed behind her majestically. She smiled my way, and it took me a while to realize she was looking at May.

"Hey, May!" The girl said excitedly.

**_ "CRAP!"_** I thought. _"**May knows her?"**_ I could feel my palms get sweaty. Hell, even the back of my neck was sweaty. **_"I don't even know her, how is she doing this to me?"_**

"Hi Dawn! This is my friend Ash. He just moved here."

"Oh!" She said quickly, looking in my eyes for the smallest fraction of a second then looking back at May. "Nice to meet you!"

She shook my hand. A jolt sent through my body at contact. Either my hands were sweating double-time, or hers were sweating as well. I highly doubted that, so I let go as soon as possible.

"Hi" I said, barely audible. It was as if I hadn't spoken for years and I had finally said my first word. I couldn't tell you how embarrassed I was at the strange look she gave me, followed by the chuckle.

She sat near the back of the bus. **_"Good_"** I thought. **_"Not near me. Nervousness must be getting to me. This has never happened to me."_**

Girls and I had a strange relationship. I had never kissed a girl, but I had so many good friends who were girls back home. I really didn't understand it. I never pondered about it, though, as it never really bothered me.

Until now.


	2. Sweat and Regret

Chapter 2

The bus ride wasn't too long, and as I got off I simply followed May and Dawn into the school. I looked around, avoiding looking at her incredible blue hair. The main hall was absolutely gigantic, with a glass ceiling and huge glass windows. To the left, the third and second (main) floors were visible, and the first and basement were downstairs.

"Ash!" Someone yelled to me. It was May. Her simple group had turned into a much larger group. I walked over. "Ash find your name on this paper. It will tell you your home class and where your locker is."

"HI I'M MISTY!" A tall, orange-haired girl was suddenly in my face and shaking my hand. May pulled her back and gave her a strange look. Things just got awkward.

"I'm Brock! Great to meet you. I hear you play soccer; I'm the captain. I'll put in a good word for you. Tryouts tomorrow!" The boy was my height, but much darker skinned. His voice was deep, and you could tell he was athletic. But he was nice, so I felt more comfortable again.

"Great! I'll definitely be there!"

"Gary's the name! Wassup, brotha?" This guy's use of slang was already starting to annoy me. But at least he was trying to make me feel more comfortable, I had to give him that. He had light brown hair and was shorter than Brock and I. Suddenly, he put his arm around me. "Alright here's the story. I'm the chick magnet of the school, bro!" Everyone moaned. "Shaddup, so if you ever..."

Out of the corner of my eye I could see a figure staring at me. It was Dawn! Again, the sweat returned and I began to radiate heat like a fire pokemon. I glanced at her. She was zoned out staring into my eyes. I decided to play it cool and give her a smile. She immediately returned and looked down. I could have sworn she blushed, but then again, it was hard to see her face. I couldn't tell if my sweating and heat died down, or if it just became even worse and I couldn't feel it anymore.

"...Okay, bro?" I realized Gary had just finished talking.

"You got it man!" I said humorously, because everyone clearly saw that I wasn't paying attention at all.

"Hmph"

"I'm sure you'll meet more of our friends in some of your classes, Ash!" May told me.

I actually took that one to heart. It was as if she believed that I couldn't make friends for myself, and that kind of pissed me off.

"Cool!" I decided to say.

My locker was located in the basement, next to Gary's. On my way down I wasn't expecting much; it was a goddamn basement. When we got down it actually seemed more pleasant than the main floors. The lockers were much wider, which was great. I began unloading my things and dumping them in there.

"What's your first class, man?" Gary asked.

"Uhh, it's math"

"That sucks! Sorry man!"

Actually I didn't mind. I was good at it and it was easy to me; a good way to start off my day.

"Well I'll catch ya later, dawg" said Gary. He never missed an opportunity to add a pointless word to a sentence.

Getting into Math, I sat around the middle. Didn't want to be in the front, that's for sure, and I always found the back very uninviting, unless you had a substitute teacher.

I wasn't the first, but there weren't many people in yet. I looked at my watch and noticed the bell would ring in 2 minutes. In those two minutes, every seat filled up but mine. So, there WERE a lot of people.

The bell was ringing as she entered. "**_Goddamn it"_** I thought. _**"Her AGAIN?"**_ It was Dawn. Of course, the only seat left was beside me. It seemed she was hesitant to sit beside me, and it seemed that she almost preferred to stand. Eventually she sat. **_"What the hell?" _**I thought.

I had some strange feelings for this girl. She had an effect on me where I would always become nervous and usually sweat at her presence. But, it was weird. I liked to be in her presence.

And I say, "be in her presence" lightly. I couldn't talk to her, nor look at her. Nothing. I couldn't understand it. This never happened before.

75 minutes felt like years sitting quietly beside her. Finally class was over, and it was off to second period. Music.

I played many instruments. My best was piano, but I played guitar, trumpet, drums and violin as well. Music class was a breeze, and Misty and her friend were in that class too.

"Oh! Hey! Ash!" Misty called out. "This is Jasmine."

A fairly tall girl with light brown hair was greeting me. Her hair was let down, but she almost had horns of hair on top. It sounds weird, but it was a nice look for her.

"So what do you guys play?" I asked.

"Well I LOVE the flute. And Jasmine plays the saxophone." Misty replied.

"Jeez, Misty, I can talk for myself you know..." Jasmine complained.

"Whatever."

The teacher just talked about the rules of the music room for the whole period. I was disappointed that we didn't get to play, not even just for fun. Oh well. I had a nice talk with Misty and Jasmine during the period.

Lunch time, and I wasn't looking forward to it. I had a feeling that my predictions at breakfast were going to prove true.

I made my way to the caf with Gary, as well as Jasmine and Misty, who I found out also had lockers in the basement. It was a huge room with quite a long line-up, but it seemed like they sold everything. I was very surprised. They even sold pokemon food, which was completely unnecessary, for no one in the school could own one.

I actually bought a delicious looking slice of pizza and a drink. Not too shabby. As I followed my new friends to our table, I noticed Dawn wasn't there. My body and brain were happy, but my heart sunk. I quickly snapped out of it and sat across from May.

"How's your day been so far?" She asked me.

"Well if this pizza tastes good, then it will be perfect." I lied. First period was torture.

"See? See? I told you you'd love it here!"

"When did I ever doubt it, May?"

Brock started, "So Ash, what do you have after lunch?"

I was preparing my answer when someone sat next to May. It was, once again, Dawn. My heart was pounding a million beats per minute and I was surprised that no one else could hear it. May gave her a "hello" nod and then turned to look to look at me, puzzled.

"Uh, Ash?" Brock asked impatiently.

My heart skipped a beat, or maybe two, as I remembered the question previously asked.

"Oh! Right sorry! Haha." I said, nervously laughing. "I have P.E."

"Oh, me too!" Brock seemed happy. "And I think we're playing volleyball as an introductory activity"

**_ "Yes!"_** I thought. **_"Finally, something that will take my mind off 'things' for once"._**

"I hear you're quite the star at it!" Jasmine added.

"Yeah, and to think we get to watch him play all period, eh Dawn?" Misty said, addressing Dawn.

Wait, WHAT?

Dawn let out a breath that I interpreted as a failure of trying to say something. "Really?" she corrected herself.

"Yeah, health class is in the gym today! Isn't it great?"

At that point the bell rang, and we all started towards our lockers. I was nervous as ever. _**"Great"**_ I thought_. __**"Another period with Dawn? Way to 'take my mind off things'".**_

And so I headed to my locker and then to the change room, not at all prepared for P.E. anymore.


	3. Gym Class Hero

**Hey beauties,  
><strong>

**It's a beautiful day outside, and what better way to celebrate than to upload a new chapter?**

**Before we start, just a few things...**

**I've decided that I'm going to put up at LEAST 1 chapter a week, but I will actually shoot for 2 :)**

**Unfortunately I won't have a set day for uploads, sorry! But just keep your eyes open and nag me if I haven't uploaded in a while :)**

**In about a month's time, however, I won't have any time to write (being June)**

**We have exams here in Canadaland and I need to take Driver's Ed. I also travel every weekend and knowing the size of Canadaland, you can hopefully sympathize with me :/**

**Also, I'll have sports at night so I'll have 0 time at all to write.**

**But after that 2-3 week period I'll be home free with summer! Plenty of time to write so no excuses!**

**Okay but really you don't care so here's that Chapter! Stay strong pearlshippers!**

Chapter 3

The change room surprisingly didn't smell too bad. Maybe it was just because I was too nervous and worried to care. Why was I so nervous? I couldn't answer that. I hadn't the slightest idea.

I saw Brock, so I decided to talk to him.

"Hey, Brock, what's up?" I asked

He laughed "Well, to be honest, Ash, nothing has really changed since 5 minutes ago at lunch!"

I laughed along. My laughter was cut short when I felt someone pull me back and throw me into the wall, forcing me to hit the back of my head on a hook. I think I heard something like "Haha, new kid!" but the pain was pretty bad for me to hear anything. Luckily I wasn't bleeding, but the pain was ridiculous.

As I rose, a shorter guy with purplish mop-like hair stood in front of me.

"Welcome to Jubilife High, faggot"

He walked away. I wouldn't fight back, at least not then. I wasn't that kind of a guy. I remembered we were going to play volleyball in gym. I'd get him back somehow that way.

After Brock made sure I was okay (he would be a great doctor), we proceeded to the gym. Thankfully, Dawn and the health class were nowhere in sight. My nerves calmed. We warmed up, and then went straight into action.

We started with a hitting warm-up, and we all hit balls over the net. I could instantly see no one was of my caliber, except for Brock. He was a great setter, so I asked him to set a ball up for me to hit.

As I tossed him the ball, I instantly knew that this hit was going to be huge. He set it up perfectly; perfect speed and height. So I just got way up there and hit the ball straight down.

KABOOM

The ball bounced all the way up to the ceiling (which was unusually high for a high school gym, by the way) and actually rattled a bit thought the holes and pipes before falling back down to the chants of "OOOOOHHHHHH" from the guys and the excited screams of the girls.

THE GIRLS?

I turned around very fast to see them jumping around and screaming excitedly. They were all staring at me, and I felt a moment of extreme joy. Suddenly I felt saddened because Dawn was not there to see it.

But there she was. She was standing to the side. She was not jumping, but she was staring at me. And this time when I looked at her, she did not look away. For a moment we were frozen in time, just her and I. It was amazing.

Of course Brock had to ruin it by slapping me on the back, forcing me to turn around.

"That was GREAT. Teach me how to do that one day!"

"Thanks, Brock." I replied. "You can count on the fact that I will!"

Eventually, after the girls left, we split up into teams. Brock and I were on the same team and we really carried the team. When it came time to play the purple-haired kid's team, I knew I was not leaving to 4th period without revenge.

I told Brock to set the ball tight to the net and to push it far outside. This would give me the perfect shot. So when the ball came over, I knew that it all had to be done perfectly. As the ball came across, I turned my body towards the unsuspecting boy. I hit the ball as hard as I could towards his face.

SLAP! Right in the nose. The ball bounced up, almost as high as my first hit, and landed in the bleachers. It was then that I realized that the girls had returned and they were sitting there, laughing hysterically at him, lying on the floor. Even Dawn was laughing her head off. I felt like a god.

Last was physics class. The purple-haired kid, or "Paul" as I now knew, did not talk to me at all in the change room. I quickly showered and got my books for physics. I was in a great mood. Walking in to class, Dawn was there. She was the only person I knew there.

I was in a good mood. My nerves were not too bad, so I decided to sit right beside her. At first I froze, and it seemed like she did too. My mood helped me break the ice.

"Hey!"

"Hi."

"How was your health class?"

"Okay."

At this point I was frustrated and was debating not talking anymore. She did not seem very interested in me at all.

"Wow, you had a great gym class, didn't you?"

She caught me by surprise when she said this, and she was actually looking at me for once.

"Huh? Oh, yeah! It was loads of fun."

"I saw your hit. Almost got the ball stuck in the ceiling! It was so cool!"

"Haha thanks! Yeah it was great!"

She still sounded pretty uncomfortable talking to me, but at least we were talking for the first time.

"It was loads of fun to watch you play! You were really goo..."

"Do I have to split you two up?" It was the teacher. "Dawn, take a seat over here."

As she got up to move, she seemed to have given me an apologetic look. _"**Damn,"**_ I thought, _**"just as we were starting to hit it off."**_

As I watched the teacher guide her to her new seat, my heart suddenly dropped. I couldn't believe my eyes. The teacher placed her right beside that scumbag Paul. She smiled at him, he smiled back, and they began conversing quietly.

All I could think about was her that class. Occasionally I looked back at her, but nothing. She was always either doing her work or talking to Paul. I couldn't even focus on my physics work. I can assure you a girl has never done that to me before, as hard as that is to believe.

After the period ended, I moped to my locker and got on the bus with May. Dawn was in the same spot as in the morning, still talking to Paul. I decided it was best not to look or think about it, so I turned around, took a seat, and plugged my earphones in.


	4. One Huge Mess

**NEW CHAPTER FOLKS!**

**Just one thing: There are some characters that are older in the anime than Ash and Dawn. Just try to imagine all the characters as being around the same age.**

**Sweet. Read on! **

Chapter 4

I said goodbye to May and got off at my stop. First day finally done! The school was nice, and for the most part the students were nice. But I wasn't thinking of any of that as I walked back home. I was thinking of this mysterious girl and what she was doing to me.

It was weird. I could talk to Misty and Jasmine no problem. In fact I enjoyed our little talks. But with Dawn, I just couldn't do it. And I also found it strange how she acted around me. Mostly she just ignored me, but I found that we shared some rather intense moments. I didn't even think for a second about Paul.

Back at home, my mom immediately interviewed me on my first day.

"Did you make any new friends?"

"Yeah."

"And..."

"They're all really nice, mom."

"How are your classes?"

I had a feeling that all this small talk was ultimately going to lead to something, but I just went along with it.

"Good. I have math, music, P.E., and physics."

"Well that's not too bad now. Anyways, some girl named Misty called earlier, but you weren't home yet."

Aha. There it was.

"Um, really? What did she want?"

"Who is this girl?" she asked, completely ignoring my question.

"I met her today, she's in my music class. WHY DID SHE CALL?"

"Hmph." My mom frowned at me. "She just wanted you to call her back." She said raising her eyebrows and lifting her nose.

After unpacking my bag and having a little snack, I checked the call history and called the number back. A woman answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"Misty?" I asked.

"No, this is her mother. You must be Ash. She's told me much about you!"

**_"What the hell?"_** I thought. _**"I've known her for a day. How much could she tell her mom?"**_

"Haha." I faked an awkward laugh. "Is she available?"

"Yep, give me one second!"

I heard faint arguing through the phone, and finally the phone rattled and a voice spoke.

"Ash?"

"Hey, Misty. You..."

"ASH! How are you?" She was screaming excitedly. It took me by surprise.

"Uhhh, good... . You called?"

"Yeah, I did! We're all going out tonight, do you want to tag along?"

I was slightly puzzled. "But, it's a Monday."

I never used to go out on Mondays back in Pallet Town. Mondays were pretty much homework and relax days.

"So what? C'mon, you deserve it! You made it through the first day at a new school!"

"Well, who's going?" I asked.

"Well, the usual, and some of our other friends you haven't met yet because they were on a camping trip and couldn't come to school today."

"Who's 'the usual'?"

"Oh, you know! Me, Jasmine, Brock, Gary, May, Dawn..."

I froze at the name. _**"She's going to be there?"**_ I thought. _**"I think I've had enough of her today."**_ I immediately made my decision.

"Yeah, um, I don't think I can go."

"We thought you'd say that. That's why we're coming over to pick you up. See you in a bit! By the way we're going out for seafood. BYE ASH! Be ready!"

The line went dead before I could answer. "Great" I thought. "Now I have to go."

"Mom!" I called. "Don't make me anything. I guess I'm going for dinner!"

5 minutes later and Misty was already at my door.

"Sorry. I'm not ready yet Misty!" I felt like a girl. Guys are always ready beforehand, and especially before girls are.

"Well then, we'll just come in. Jasmine! Dawn! Let's wait inside!"

I ran upstairs to get ready before they came in. I wanted to have the least amount of contact with Dawn as possible. But that wasn't going to be easy.

I decided I'd still try to make this a fun night for myself even though she would be there. I slipped into my best jeans and put on my sports hoodie. As I walked out of my room to go downstairs, I turned the corner and saw Dawn. I panicked.

"Wha?" That came out pretty loud.

She stared at me like a deer caught in headlights. I could relate because I'm pretty sure that's exactly what I was doing. Finally she spoke.

"Sorry! I was just looking for the bathroom!"

I was still in shock, but somehow managed to lift up my arm and point down the hall.

"Oh, over there? Thanks!"

She slowly turned around and headed for the bathroom. I could finally exhale. I felt like such an idiot. My plan had pretty much failed within a few seconds.

As I walked down the stairs, I saw some unfamiliar faces.

"Hey! Finally ready?" Jasmine asked me.

"Yeah! Sorry about that."

"Ash, meet Kenny, Flint, and Ursula."

Kenny was a smaller fellow with reddish-brown hair and a higher-pitched voice. He was slightly awkward, but greeted me nonetheless. Flint, who lived up to his rumors, was tall and built. Everyone at school knew him as "the rich guy". He always stood with a strong posture.

"If there's one thing you should know," Jasmine whispered into my ear, "it's that Ursula and Dawn are not on good terms right now. Don't ask."

Ursula had curled, almost pink hair. Simply by observing the way she looked at everyone you could tell she was a brat.

"So you're the new guy? You're okay, I guess."

"Thanks..."

"FINALLY, DAWN!" Misty yelled as I turned around to see Dawn walking down the stairs. "Let's go!"

We all separated into Misty's van and Brock's van, and started our way to the restaurant. I was sitting beside Flint so I decided to strike a conversation.

"So Flint, do you play sports?"

"Yeah, I'm on the football team. I hear you play soccer and volleyball. What's with the pussy sports?"

Whoa. I decided to change the subject before starting an argument.

"What do you want to become?"

"Oh I'm already becoming a pokemon trainer, it's definite. I've already got my starter picked for when I graduate."

Impressive, I had to admit. I didn't get the chance to ask what kind it was as we had arrived already.

"Let's get to our table quick!" Suggested Misty. "I'm so hungry!"

We all sat at our giant table for 10. I took a random seat first. Misty seemed to rush to sit in front of me. Strange...

Kenny grabbed a seat beside Misty in front of me. But the next thing took me completely by surprise.

Dawn actually RAN to beat Brock in grabbing the seat next to mine! She blushed as everyone gave her a strange look, turned to me, and smiled awkwardly.

A rush of emotions, happy, shy, flattered, anxious, scared, nervous, you name it, sent through my body. It was enough to make me start choking on my water.

As I was coughing, both Misty and Dawn rushed to try and help me. I waved my hand telling them I was okay. But they both continued.

I finally stopped choking.

"Thank god you're alright!" Misty said.

As we got our menus, normal conversation started again. I was talking to Misty about our music class, occasionally adding Jasmine to the conversation when talking about funny things that happened. She seemed ecstatic when talking to me.

Dawn was very quiet for some reason. I decided that my previous plan was total garbage and I was going to have a fun time tonight. With HER.

There was, however, something bothering me. Every time I looked over at Kenny, he was always staring at her. Kind of like I would do. It raised the question: did he feel the same was about her as I did?

As the dinner progressed, we finally got our food. I was still talking to Misty. Dawn finally struck up a conversation with Kenny about something. This was why I was still too scared to talk to her. I was having thoughts about how I shouldn't be scared and it would be completely natural for me to talk to her. But all to no avail.

The dinner was finally done, and we were all going to head home. It took us a while to start to leave, because even as we stood, our conversations continued. Misty was honestly boring me, so I decided to eavesdrop on Dawn and Kenny's conversation.

"I just wanted you to know!" Kenny told her.

"Oh Kenny, I know, but..."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a dark red blob move closer to a blue blob and ultimately mix together. I turned my head very quickly, expecting the worst. But no. It was even worse than the worst.

Kenny was kissing Dawn.

My heart sunk so much that I almost threw up right there. I couldn't believe my eyes. That must have been the reason why Dawn rushed to sit beside me. So she could be across from Kenny. I wanted to cry. But I knew I couldn't.

She pushed him off, yelling "Kenny!"

I heard something from my right. It must have been Misty.

"Well, since we're doing that..."

As I turned my head, I saw a huge orange figure right in my face, and felt something on my lips. Oh dear. This was unexpected.

Misty was now kissing me.

This was all just one huge mess.


	5. Leave It All Behind

**NEW CHAPTER FOLKS!**

**Wow 4 Chapters in a week! Didn't think that would happen.**

**Please don't expect this every week, because I guarantee it won't happen. Maybe it will though! :) Still gonna try for 2 a week though, for SURE there will be at least one in the worst case!**

**Also, let me know how many chapters you guys think I should make this. I'm willing to carry it on for a longgggg time, so shoot me some suggestions!**

**Enjoy!**

Chapter 5

This was just not right. No, no, no, no, this couldn't be happening! Not now, not here! Not with HER!

I pushed her off me. She blushed and smiled, but that quickly changed when she saw my angry facial expression.

I turned to look at Dawn. She was staring at me with wide eyes. Tears started to pour down from her eyes. She quickly turned on her heels and stormed out.

Kenny tried to chase after her, but...

"Kenny, don't you dare follow me!"

Kenny put his head down and took a seat.

I looked around. Everyone was either shocked, sad, or laughing. Misty was sitting down red in the face, either embarrassed, shocked, or mad at what she just did. What a disaster.

"We should probably all go home now then." May suggested.

"Yeah." Everyone agreed.

I wanted to go home and lie down in my bed so bad at that point, but I knew I had to do something. I had to make this all right again.

"Give me a moment, please." I said.

Everyone nodded.

I knew that I had to talk to Dawn and settle things down. If not, my chances of even talking to her EVER would disappear.

I found her outside on the balcony, obviously crying to herself. I was extremely nervous, but I somehow built up the courage to talk to her.

"Some night, huh?"

No stutter, no nervousness, nothing. I felt invincible.

She quickly turned around and saw me. She was crying like crazy. She let out a small smile. I was surprised she didn't shoo me away.

"What are you doing here?"

"Listen, this night's just been a mess. And you're obviously hurting because of some things that have happened. But I think we should put this all behind us."

"You really think we can do that?"

"Yes! I mean it'll be a little hard, but c'mon Dawn, you know you can!"

She smiled even wider this time.

"You're a great guy, Ash. Don't let anyone ever tell you you're not. You and Misty are perfect for each other."

Blood rushed to my head at that last sentence. I wanted to yell my answer as loud as I possibly could, but of course, I kept my cool.

"Misty? That was a mistake. I don't like, nor do I want to date her."

She smiled even more and wiped a tear from her eyes. She started towards me and gave me a hug.

I couldn't tell you how amazing that hug felt. I was the happiest person in the world. She rested her head on my shoulder. It was so soft, so light. She was so nice to hold, and it was as if it was just me and her in the entire world.

"I feel the same way about Kenny." She whispered to me. "We're just friends, and I don't want to take it any further with him. I just don't want to make him sad."

"I guess it's all just one big love circle"

She broke out of the hug, still holding me, and looked at me, puzzled.

"What do you mean, 'a big love circle'?"

What DID I mean by that? Was this the perfect time to tell her how I felt about her? How she affected me? How she made me feel? How I couldn't stop thinking about her?

"Oh, nothing." I chickened out. I guess it wasn't the right time.

She smiled again, and wiped another tear from her eye. "You really are a great guy, Ash."

She was slowly starting to lean in. I had a moment of panic, but suddenly relaxed because I knew this felt right. It was finally going to happen. I was totally ready.

"Ash? Dawn? Is everything alright?" It was Jasmine. We quickly separated, staring at each other with wide eyes. "Dawn, are you okay?"

She relaxed and, still staring at me, smiled with the corner of her mouth.

"*Sniff* Yeah, Ash really helped me feel a lot better."

Jasmine turned to look at me confused, and then smiled.

"Who would've thought?" She let out a small giggle. "C'mon guys, let's go home"

As we walked back to the group, Kenny saw Dawn and rushed to her side.

"Omigosh Dawn! Are you alright?"

"Never better."

"Listen I'm really sorry..."

"Save it, Kenny. Let's just..."

She turned to me and smiled.

"...put this all behind us."

Once again, we split up into the two vans. Kenny insisted on going with Dawn, but she refused. She seemed genuinely mad at him. Misty also offered to go with me. I refused. Not after how she embarrassed me in front of everyone.

Dawn and I hopped into Brock's van with May and Gary. I sat in the back with Dawn. Now that we were finally on talking terms, I could easily start up a conversation with her.

"So why are you on such bad terms with Ursula?" I innocently asked her.

She hesitated to answer, and shyly whispered in my ear, "I'll tell you later."

I nodded and smiled in understanding.

Both vans stopped at my house when we arrived, and I headed for my front door. It was pretty late and tomorrow was Tuesday, so I was happy to get to bed. As I was waving goodbye from my doorstep, I saw an orange head come out of the other van. Misty came running at me with an angry expression on her face.

"Ash!" She yelled furiously. We were just far enough so that the rumble of the vans' idle engines overpowered Misty's yells, and no one else could hear her but me. "Why'd you have to go and embarrass me like that tonight?"

"Misty, no offense, but you embarrassed yours..."

"And NOW," she interrupted, "you're give me lip? Ash you have crossed the line! You're lucky that I'm deciding to give you another chance, Ash!"

"But Misty, I don't..."

"See you tomorrow, Ashy!" She winked at me and started back for the van. I rolled my eyes, turned on my heels, and dragged myself into my house. My mom was waiting there.

"Well it's about time! Shame on you for coming home so late!"

She must have seen the look of worry and confusion on my face, because she immediately changed subject.

"Er... How did it go?"

"Um, it was fun. Good food."

I avoided further conversation by going upstairs, brushing my teeth, and going to bed. I was so happy to finally be in bed.

Maybe it's just me, but I love thinking in bed. I find that thinking in bed is when your real emotions and feelings come out of hiding in your head. I find you are relaxed enough to absorb everything that is happening and reflect on it, whereas during the day you simply go along with it.

So I thought.

At first everything just seemed so mixed, I couldn't believe it all happened in only one day. I started to laugh. It was pretty ridiculous when you really thought about it.

Then I really started to break it down.

I started off by thinking of my most recent troubles. Misty. This was a disaster. I didn't like her back at all. But I couldn't possibly tell her that without upsetting her and making a new enemy. And what did she mean by "give me another chance"? I could only guess, and I desperately hoped it would not be that. She kind of scared me in a way. She was forcing things onto me, which I hated. I just hoped things would all work out between us somehow.

Next I thought of Kenny. Ugh. Kenny. Hold on. I couldn't make an enemy out of him just because he kissed Dawn. Or could I? But it's not like he was forbidden to do it. Still, I didn't think very highly of him at the moment. He had made a terrible first impression on me.

Finally, best for last, Dawn. It was amazing how I didn't even know her last I had woke up, couldn't even look at her earlier that day, and by the end it seemed like she trusted me. Still, there were many mysteries to this girl that I needed to find out. The two that really put a block in my brain were Kenny and Paul. Kenny, for obvious reasons, and Paul, because she seemed to have an attraction to him as they talked. They bonded well. I just wondered if she knew the Paul that I had met.

I can't remember anything after that, other than waking up to my stupid alarm the next morning. I was extremely confused and disoriented that morning. I was beginning to think everything was just a dream and it was all going back to normal. Then I looked out the window to see Twinleaf and realized I was wrong.

My second day was finally about to begin, and more action had happened the day before than 16 years in Pallet Town.

"Day two" I said aloud. "Let's see what it's got."


	6. Flint has a Secret?

**Hey Beauts**

**I had to rush this chapter because I wanted to get one out today but I have a match tonight so I wrote this pretty fast.**

**Sorry in advance if there are mistakes!**

**Okay my match starts in 10 minutes, I need to go!**

**Enjoy! **

Chapter 6

It was another hectic morning for me getting ready for my second day of school. I headed downstairs and noticed my mom was already gone for work. I had a quick cereal breakfast, packed my soccer gear (I thankfully remembered what Brock had told me the day before) and headed out the door to catch the bus. The bus came earlier that day. _**I need to leave the house earlier.**_ I thought. _**If I miss this bus, I'll have no idea how to get to school.**_

The bus was a lot emptier than the day before. This day was already turning out to be better than the last! I found an empty double-seat so I could talk to May when she got on.

At the next stop, she did indeed get on and sit next to me.

"How's it going, Ash?"

"Very well! And you?"

"Good, good. Hectic night, eh?"

"May, I think we should all just put it behind us and carry on."

"'Put it behind us'? Didn't you tell Dawn that last night?"

What the heck? Was she psychic or something?

"Yeah, how did you know that?"

"Oh, Dawn did not stop talking about you on chat last nigh..."

Immediately, May stopped talking, placed her hand over her mouth, and turned red in the face. I was so confused.

"Huh?" I asked her.

She tried to act casual, but I could call her bluff. Her face remained red.

"Oh, nothing at all!"

"I know you're hiding something from me, May, but I don't care. It's fine." What was I saying? I cared extremely. But I didn't want to let her know that.

At the next stop, the regular wave of weirdo's got on and I wondered if they even cared what people thought about the way they dressed or looked. I laughed silently at their carelessness.

I noticed that May was no longer sitting next to me. I looked around the bus. She was sitting at the back talking to Gary. I didn't even realize he took this bus! I was about to get up and say hi, when I saw Dawn get on. Right! This was her stop too.

She got on, immediately saw me, smiled, and waved. I waved back. She was coming to sit beside me. _**THANK YOU SO MUCH MAY**_I thought.

Wait a second. May was on this bus. And so was Gary. Dawn only took the time to acknowledge me. Wow! This was a very little and probably worthless discovery that I had made, but it made me extremely happy nonetheless.

"Heey!" She greeted me.

"Hi, Dawn! You feeling better?"

"Yep! All thanks to you!"

Gah! All thanks to me! Could this really be happening?

"Well I'm glad I was able to help!"

"What you did last night was very sweet. I mean we hardly know each other, but you decided to try to help me out. I really appreciate that!"

She was speaking magic to me. I couldn't believe my ears. Was all of this real? Could this really be the perfect day?

As we both got off the bus to enter the school, we saw two starly playing with each other in a tree. I always loved seeing pokemon get along, and I told myself that there were many valuable lessons to learn from them.

We said our goodbyes as we separated to go to our lockers. I went downstairs to find Gary leaning on his locker. He was wearing a polo shirt with which he had the collar popped. He seemed mad. I was just about to say hi when...

"Are you stupid or something, Ash?"

Excuse me? What the...

"Huh?" I really didn't know how to respond to that.

"Why'd you have to go and kiss Misty last night? You made the whole night awkward for everyone and we had to leave early!"

"Gary, I didn't kiss Misty! She kissed me!"

"Oh what's the difference?"

"There's a HUGE difference, Gary! I didn't want it!" Both our voices were rising. Luckily no one else was really around.

"Yeah, right, whatever. You know what you did, Ash."

"All right, look Gary. If you're just gonna ignore the fact that I did NOT want to kiss Misty, then there's no point in arguing. See ya later." I was raging at that point, and I stormed out.

"Ash wait!"

I turned around furiously. "WHAT, Gary?"

"There actually is something I wanna ask you."

"So spit!"

"Well, how long have you known May for?"

May? That was probably the last thing I ever thought he would ask me.

"Oh I don't know, since like grade 2. Why do you care, Gary?"

"Oh! Uh.." He seemed lost and nervous, and he avoided eye contact with me. Something was up. "I just wanted to ask if you knew what kinda stuff she was into."

_**Are you kidding me right now, Gary?**_ I asked myself. _**Gary what are you doing?**_

"Why don't you just go ask her yourself, Gary? I'm off. Later." As I started for first period I thought I heard him mumble something under his breath, but I ignored it and carried on.

I had to go all the way up the stairs to go to math class. As I was climbing, I bumped into a huge figure.

"Aw what the hell, man!" I recognized the voice. It was Flint.

"Sorry Flint."

"C'mon, Ash!"

"Sorry, it's probably because you're," I waved my arms in the air and mimicked his voice. "sooooo huge!"

He surprisingly laughed and picked his things up. "I like you Ash. In fact I like you so much that I wanna show you something secret. Meet me at the back of the school after your tryout."

I guess I had to accept his offer because he walked away. What could his secret be? Considering his wealth, it's probably something amazing! I was so excited; it was incredible! I couldn't wait to find out! I turned to corner and entered math class.

I took the same seat that I had yesterday and pulled out my books. I looked awkward just sitting there alone, so I pulled out my cell phone. 8 new messages.

Misty, Misty, Misty. "Hey where are you?", "Meet me in the mall", "Is your phone on?".

_**Jeez, this girl!**_I thought to myself. She was really starting to annoy me. She never seemed to leave me alone. As I read on, I found more and more useless texts from Misty. However, there was one message that caught my eye. It was from an unknown number. I opened it.

"Hey, Ash. It's Dawn. I..."

"Hey Ash!"

That voice caught me by surprise. I quickly looked up to see Dawn sitting beside me smiling. How did I not notice her coming? Suddenly, a jolt of happiness shot through my body. I forgot that she sat beside me in class!

"H-hi!"

"Are you reading my text? That was just to give you my number. I got it from Misty!"

"O-oh! Cool!" I guess that I still wasn't used to talking to her so openly, despite what happened last night, because I still stuttered and was embarrassed. "I'll make sure to add you then!"

"Awesome. Oh and by the way, if I sit beside you for the whole semester, I'm probably gonna need loads of help!"

_**That's ABSOLUTELY no problem with me!**_I thought.

"Haha it's cool. I don't mind."

She smiled and the lesson started.

Math class was much better that day that it was previously. We hit it off much better, but the class was still had some awkward silences as we simply decided to listen to the teacher.

I entered my music class and Misty was not there. I took a seat beside Jasmine.

"Hey! Where's Misty?"

"Hiya, Ash! To be honest, I have no idea. She was here this morning. She was looking for you."

I frowned. "So I've heard."

"Listen, Ash. I think I know what's going on here. Realize that Misty does have feelings for you, and don't be so hard on her!"

Wait, what?

"What do you mean, you know what's going on?"

"Ash, I know."

That's all she said. For the rest of the period we said nothing. Could she really know everything? Did she figure it out? I wasn't sure.

I went out for lunch with Brock so we could discuss the after-school tryout.

"Listen, Ash. There will be some jerks there who think they're all that. Even Paul will be there. But don't let them get to you. Just play your game."

So I let Brock's words of wisdom sink in all throughout P.E. But I noticed that Paul wasn't there. Maybe he wouldn't be at the tryout after all!

Finally, last period. Physics. I walked in and noticed that this time Paul was there. Then where was he last period? I sat in my seat and waited for Dawn. As she entered, I waved at her. She smiled back, but went to go sit beside Paul and strike a conversation with him. I slowly turned around, and spent physics class alone, trying to ignore Dawn and Paul's occasional laughs and giggles.

At the end of the day, I went straight to the change room to change for the tryout. I was, once again, alone in the change room. I kitted up in my old uniform, tied up my cleats, and headed out the door for the field. As I was walking out, I bumped into someone. _**Flint again, probably.**_I thought to myself. No, this time it was Dawn!

"I'm so sorry Dawn! Here."

I picked up all her books and handed them to her.

"It's okay. Thanks, Ash. Headed to tryouts?"

"Yeah." An idea popped into my head. "Hey, why don't you come and watch?"

"Yeah, I agree with Dusty Ash. I'd like you to come and watch." A familiar voice spoke from behind the corner.


	7. Laboratories and Parties

**Oh, hey there!**

**So guys, this is definitely my best chapter yet. It sets up the stage for a LOT of things.**

**And when I say a lot, I mean a LOT of drama is yet to come in the next few chapters, trust me.**

**So read this one well if you want the full experience. Or don't, it's up to you :)**

**Don't be afraid to review, no matter how short or long it is!**

**Lemme know what you think will/want to happen in the next few chapters! **

**K so enjoy this chapter!**

Chapter 7

"Hey, Paul! Yeah, I think that I will come to watch!" Dawn informed us.

"Hm. Good. See you there. Ready to get your butt handed to you, Dusty?"

This guy was a little brat.

"No, because that won't happen." I shot back at him. "Dusty? Coming from the guy who has more hair on his eyebrows than his head?"

Payback.

"See you on the field." Paul went outside to get ready.

"ASH!" Dawn yelled at me. I was so surprised. "Alright, do you want to know why I'm on bad terms with Ursula? It's because she keeps making fun of Paul. And that really annoys me. So you'd better stop doing that RIGHT now!"

"Dawn!..."

She stormed out. _**She definitely doesn't see the Paul that I see. **_I thought to myself. I rolled my eyes and put my troubles behind me. I had to focus on the tryout.

"Alright, everyone bring it in!" Coach was calling us in to meet. "Now that we've done attendance and warmed up, I want you to meet our team's captain, Brock. Brock's going to be running the drills today so I want you to treat him with respect and do what he tells you to. Any disobeying of Brock is a disobeying of me!"

Brock started us off with a few passing and dribbling drills, nothing too serious. I caught a glimpse of Dawn sitting in the bleachers but I made nothing of it. I had to focus on the task at hand.

Finally we got into scrimmages. I was on the opposite team to Paul. Yes! Time for revenge. I got the ball, turned towards goal, and saw Paul charge at me. I slid the ball to the side and he ran right past me. I shot the ball and scored. I just straight up embarrassed Paul.

Things didn't go so smoothly after then, however. At one point, I got the ball. Paul clipped my ankle and tugged my shirt. I fell to the ground. Coach started yelling at me that I tripped over the ball.

"Coach, he pulled me down!" I tried to argue.

"We don't need clumsiness on this team, son!"

More scenes like this repeated, and now Paul was embarrassing me. It was a nightmare. Even Dawn took Paul's side, constantly cheering for him. By the time the tryout was over, I was glad to go back inside. I avoided Paul and went to change in the bathroom.

"Ash?" Someone was calling me. I had no idea who. I turned around.

"Ash, that's your name, right?" It was Ursula.

"Yeah, it is. What are you doing here?"

"Library, to study."

Something Dawn told me popped into my head, so I decided to ask Ursula.

"Um, Ursula? I hope you don't mind me asking, but why are you on such bad terms with Dawn?"

"Dawn? Ugh. She gets upset every time I make fun of Paul. I don't get why she's so defensive around him."

"But, why do you hate him so much. I mean, I can name you a thousand reasons why, but why do YOU hate him?"

"Oh, I dated him."

"I think I just threw up a little!" I joked.

"Haha, very funny. Now let me finish. When we were dating, he was very demanding. He thought I was too slow, so he always tried to do things to me. I broke up with him soon after."

Huh. So, Paul was a rusher? Couldn't keep a relationship for long, eh? Couldn't say I didn't expect that.

"Wow. I didn't think..."

"Hey! Ash! You haven't forgot about me have you?" Flint came rushing at me.

"Oh yeah!" I exclaimed. I turned to Ursula. "Thanks for sharing with me. I can feel your pain. Paul is a jerk to me, too."

"You know Ash," she informed me, "you're not half bad. In fact I kinda like you!"

"Uh, thanks!" I said. She entered the library.

I quickly changed and went back out to find Flint.

"Come with me." I followed Flint to his car and he drove me all the way to his house. The car ride was completely quiet because he told me not to say a word.

Finally we entered his house. It was huge! He led me to his basement. At this point I was overcome with curiosity. He opened a small door.

"Go in here." He told me. I entered. As the lights turned on, I could see tubes and containers everywhere. I had no idea what it was.

"This, my friend," Flint said proudly, "is my pokemon laboratory."

No way! Impossible!

"A pokemon laboratory?" I asked.

"Check this out"

He pressed a button and a container lifted from the ground with six balls. They looked similar to "pokeballs" that my mom used to show me pictures of when I was little. Apparently they held pokemon inside.

"I've already got my party all planned out and ready right here!"

He released them all and I was astounded. There really were pokemon in there!

There was one that caught my eye. It was a small yellow mouse. It smiled at me. It said something like "paku" or "pachu", I couldn't tell. I started petting it and it climbed onto my shoulder.

"It seems like pikachu has really taken a liking to you, Ash. Yeah, I caught that one on my dad's business trip to Kanto."

Caught?

"Flint, surely you don't mean to say all of these pokemon are yours? I mean they must be your dad's or something, you're underage, it's impossible to simply GET a pokeball, let alone catch a pokemon!"

He flinched and stared at me.

"Yeah. These a-are all my dad's. I'm going to inherit them, of course!"

Wow. Could you be a worse liar? I knew something was up. He sent me home earlier than expected. He said it was because something unexpected turned up, but I knew it was because he knew I was catching on. So I just went home.

On my way home, I thought little about Flint's secret pokemon lab. This was because Dawn, as she so often did, crossed my mind. I really couldn't see what she saw in Paul. He was mean to others, mean to her, and who could forget, he was pretty ugly. She was still pretty mad at me about what I said to him, even though he insulted me first! I just hoped that eventually she would see the Paul that I saw. My train of thought was interrupted when I felt my phone vibrate. It was Misty calling. Ah great.

I ignored it. She immediately called back. I hesitated, but finally decided that I should probably pick it up.

"Hello?"

"Ash! Hi! How are you?"

This was really weird.

"Great, you?"

"Decent. I went home early today. That's because I was thinking too much of you."

Wow. Way to be straight up about things, I guess.

"O-oh. Really?"

"Yeah! Listen, Ash. Kenny's hosting a party tomorrow night and everyone's gonna be there. His parents are out, and his parties are always wild! So I was wondering if you wanted to go with me!"

No, no, no! Not with her! I was immediately going to say my answer when I heard Jasmine's voice in my head. "Don't be so hard on her!" _**Ugh, am I ever going to regret this! **_I thought to myself.

"Yeah, sure, Misty." I said hopelessly. "I'll go with you."

"YES!" I had to take my ear away from the speaker; she was so loud! "Okay, see you there then Ash! Tomorrow night at 8!"

She hung up. Wonderful. Dammit, Jasmine. Why'd you make me do that?

I went home, ate supper, finished my homework, and went straight to bed. Tomorrow was not going to be fun, and I had a gut feeling that something seriously bad was going to happen at this party.


	8. Panic Party!

**Hey folks!**

**During my run this morning I had nothing to think about so for some reason this story came into my head.**

**So I busted my *blank* to finish this chapter!**

**On that note, realize that there were so many times when making a character swear would be sooo fitting!**

**But Cacooks7 tries to keep it clean for you guys. :D**

**A nice long chapter for you guys! Enjoy!**

**Keep 'em reviews coming!**

**All reviews welcome!**

Chapter 8

An image began to form before me. It was house. I was in a room. I had a drink in my hand. There were figures around me moving. I could hear music playing, and the figures were moving with the music. I started walking. An orange figure kept coming towards me, and I kept trying to free it of me. It was really starting to annoy me. I began to run to try and get away.

I got lost and started to look around to try and find my way. There was a staircase, so I decided to climb it. There were some figures in the hallway, but two of them really caught my attention. I could actually hear them talking.

"Have this." one of them said.

"Thanks!" The other said. Their voices were vaguely familiar. It was about to drink something, when it suddenly stopped.

"Wait, did you..." The rest of the sentence was slurred.

"No, of course not! You know I love you!"

"You did! Help! Ash! Help me!"

I stood straighter at the sound of my name. I was scared. I started running towards the one figure, bit with every step I took it got further away.

"Heellppp meeeee Asshhhhhh! Assshhhh! Hey Ash!"

That last calling was much clearer. I suddenly found myself sitting up in my bed, sweating. _**It was all a dream, I think.**_

"Ash, you're going to be late if you don't wake up RIGHT NOW!" It was my mom.

"Sorry!" I yelled back. I had to rush out of bed, go to the washroom, get ready, and grab a breakfast-to-go. I headed out the door in a good 5 minutes. Record time? I think so.

I sprinted to the bus stop. The bus was already there. It started to leave. "WAIT!" I yelled. It accelerated. I stopped running, hopeless. Suddenly, the bus stopped. I was so relieved, and started running again. I thankfully caught the bus. _**So much for leaving the house earlier **_I thought.

I took a seat at the same double-seater as the previous day. May got on, waved at me, but once again went to go sit in the back with Gary. What was going on between them? I remembered what Gary had asked me about May. Why did he want to know that? Why was he so curious about her? A possible answer popped into my head, but I shook it off as it didn't seem possible.

Dawn didn't get on at her stop. I figured this was a good thing as she was probably still mad at me, but I was nonetheless sad. It was always nice to see her, at least in my eyes. I thought about what I did to Paul. I didn't really do much compared to what he does to others. But I must have hit a nerve on Dawn. She never freaked out on me like that before. Then again, I hadn't known her for very long.

So I sat quietly by myself for the whole bus ride to school. At least finally got the chance to actually see Jubilife city. Its tall skyscrapers, always alive with people; it really was a beautiful city. I had just realized that I hardly felt homesick, but that was probably because I never really thought about Pallet Town. There were other things on my mind, if you know what I mean.

I walked with Gary to our lockers when we got to school. "Have a nice chat with May?" I teased.

He blushed. "Yes, I did in fact. Bro, you ought leave me alone. I'm wheeling!"

"Oh, you're wheeling, eh?"

"Yeah, bro. She'll be mine in a week or two."

His confidence astounded me, but his feelings towards girls and relationships disgusted me.

"Oh, really now? How are you sure?"

"Dawg, just look at me. She came to sit beside me on the bus, first thing in the morning!"

"Just because someone sits beside you on the bus, doesn't mean they love you." I somewhat crushed my own spirits in saying that, because I thought of all the little things that Dawn did to me that I took as signs.

"What do you know? I've never seen you date a girl!" He snapped at me.

"Likewise."

"Touché" said Gary. "But not for long. You'll see. I'll prove you wrong, bro."

"Yeah whatever. See ya."

I headed up the stairs to math class. As I entered, I saw that Dawn was first this time. I went to take my seat beside her.

"Hey!"

No answer. Awkward. I tried again.

"Didn't see you on the bus. How did you get to school?"

She stuck her nose in the air and raised her eyebrows. "I got a drive with Paul."

Okay. So not only was she still mad at me, but she seemed to be rubbing it in my face. I decided not to make matters worse and just keep quiet for the whole class. It was next to impossible. All I could think of was her kissing Paul, or her kissing Kenny. It was slowly killing me inside.

I finally looked over at her. She was focusing on her work. It was obvious that she was having a very hard time. _**"I'm probably gonna need loads of help!"**_ Her words played like a record in my head. _**So much for that **_I thought to myself. Somehow, somewhere, I knew things would be right with us again. I just had a gut feeling.

Second period came around, and once again Misty was not in music class. I asked Jasmine why.

"Once again, I have no idea Ash. Hey! Are you going tonight?"

"Yup! I didn't know about it until last night when Misty called me."

Her face lost color.

"Wait, Misty called you? No! No, no! She did? Not good! And did she ask you what I think she did?"

I nodded.

"I TOLD her not to!" I'd never seen Jasmine so mad. "Wait, you obviously said no, right?"

"Jasmine, you're the one who told me to tale it easy on her!"

Jasmine put her hand over her mouth and raised her eyebrows. "I can't believe this!" She hit me on the knee. "Ash! When I said not to be hard on her, I didn't mean agree with everything she says! Now you're just leading her on and things are gonna get worse!"

"Wait, so I shouldn't have taken her to the dance? But if I said no she would have cried all day!"

"Yeah, but now when you take her to the party and she finds out you don't like her, she's going to be even more heartbroken and cry even more, especially if she's drunk!"

Her words sunk in. She was right. She would cry even more. I exhaled and put my face in my palms. This night was going to suck even more.

The rest of the day went by normally, except for the fact that Paul seemed much happier than usual. He seemed excited for something that was about to happen. I wondered if he was going to be at the party. He was talking happily with Dawn during physics, and he didn't harass anyone all day. I was surprised, but if there was one thing I knew it was that it was too good to be true. Something must be on his mind.

As the day ended, I went home and met up with Brock. We decided to go for a walk before getting ready to leave for the party.

"So you're bringing Misty to the party, eh?"

"Yeah."

He gave me a funny look.

"Why do you seem so unhappy, then? Didn't you want to take her to the party?"

I could sense a slight sarcasm in his last question.

"You don't know then whole story, Brock."

He smiled.

"Try me!"

I hesitated. He took charge.

"Ash, I helped you at the soccer tryout. I've only been nice to you since you came here. If you can't trust me here, I don't know who you'll be able to trust!"

He was right. He was definitely one of the trustworthiest people around.

"Alright. I'll tell you."

So I told about how she skipped school yesterday because of me. I told him about the phone call. I told him about my conversation with Jasmine. But I decided to keep Dawn and Paul out of this. No need to say more than necessary, right?

"Ash, you really shouldn't have said yes."

"Great! Now everyone is against me!" I was getting mad. "Look at me, stupid Ash! Well what would you have done in that situation, then?"

"Ash, calm down please." Brock's calm attitude was a constant. It was remarkable. "Look, you're just going to hurt her even more the longer you hold out. Going to the dance with her is fine, but you should let her know that you don't want to take it past friendship with her. Don't just tell her directly, though!"

I laughed. "Easy to say, difficult to do. This girl is em-o-tion-al!"

Brock laughed along. "I gotta agree with that!"

We both went home and started to get ready for the party. I couldn't say that I was excited to go, but something inside me was kind of happy that I was going.

I had just finished my dinner and gone upstairs to change when I heard the doorbell ring. I casually walked down to answer the door, and when I opened it, my heart stopped. Why was Misty at my doorstep?

"Heyyyyy, Ash! Ready?"

"M-Misty! I had no idea you were coming so early." I looked at the clock; it was 6:45. The party only started at 8. " I'm not ready y…"

"Once again, Ash isn't ready! What a surprise, folks! So c'mon! Hurry up and get ready!"

I decided to swallow my words and just go get ready. I slipped into some sleek shorts (it was a hot day, mind you) and a green shirt. I suppose I was "ready" to go, but not really.

I hopped into Misty's car and we drove there. It was embarrassing. I was supposed to be the one driving Misty. Not this way. Doesn't the guy always drive the girl. Isn't that some sort of unwritten code?

We got to Kenny's, and like expected, we were the first to arrive.

"W-wow! You guys are early!" Kenny was surprised. "I'm still setting up. I guess you guys can help while you wait for everyone to arrive."

_**Thanks a lot, Misty.**_ Setting up a party is the second worst thing possible. The first obviously being the clean up.

After nearly an hour of setting up tables, food, and making sure the drinks weren't TOO accessible to the public, we finally finished, and just in time. People slowly began to arrive. There was still no sign of Brock, May, Dawn, Paul, or any of the main crew yet, however.

With Misty already having her first few drinks and trying to get closer to me, and Kenny staring at me awkwardly for some reason, I felt out of place and already wanted to go home.

"Ash, you know, I thought you decided to come WITH me. But we haven't done anything together y…"

"Brock!" I greeted him happily as he entered. _**Great timing, buddy! **_I thought. He was with… Jasmine?

Misty read my mind. "You guys came together?"

"Yes." Jasmine shot back. "You came with someone too." She gave me an apologetic look. "And may I ask why you've been skipping school?"

"No you may not. I'll tell you later. Right now I've got to take care of my date. Let's go, Ash. Ash?"

I wasn't paying attention. The only thing I could see at that point was Dawn enter the room with Paul. A rush of jealousy shot through my body, and the alcohol didn't help, even if I hadn't drunken very much.

The party carried on. Everyone was there at that point. I was always on the lookout for Dawn, and constantly pushing Misty away and stopping her from doing "something". You'd think the girl would just give up at that point; clearly she wouldn't.

The music was blasting; people were dancing in the living room. It was all so crazy! You couldn't focus on one thing because there was just so much going on! There was one thing bothering me though. It was Kenny. He was still staring at me. I guess I was drunk enough to simply walk up to him and ask instead of ignore him.

"Hey! Something wrong?" I asked.

"Ash, come with me."

He led me into the kitchen where the music was muffled and it was quieter.

"Alright, remember the night we all went out and I kissed Dawn?"

"Yeah, lay it all on the table, okay. Why, what's up?"

"Well, she seemed pretty pissed off when I did it. And then you went to go talk to her and it seemed that everything was fine again. I've never seen her give in to someone so quickly. I think there's something special between you two."

"What do you mean?" I knew what he meant, but I wanted to see his answer.

"Alright, Ash. Cut the crap. I know you like Dawn. Just admit it."

"I…" I hesitated.

"Just say it! I won't tell anyone! All right, fine. I know you do, so I'll just finish. I want you to go for Dawn. Don't worry about me." What? Go for Dawn? I let him finish. "Under one condition. I want you to help me get Misty."

WHOA.

"You WANT Misty?"

"Yeah, but don't go telling the world here. We have a deal. Don't tell anyone."

"But, why Misty?"

"She's cute, and I love her hustle-bustle attitude. Always on the move. It's how I like to live too."

Understandable. But still! Blech! _**Wait, what am I saying. This will get her off my back for sure.**_

"Kenny, I want you to do something for me right now."

"What's that?" He asked me.

"I want you to go talk to Misty right now, and stay with her the whole night."

"You mean it? But, Ash! She's your date!"

"Trust me, you can have her."

"Ash, you're great!"

He ran off. I felt victorious. I prayed that this would be the end of Misty and I, at least for now, and I wouldn't have to confront her about not liking her.

The night carried on, and I had a few more drinks. It was much easier for me to enjoy myself, because Misty was not following me all the time. It worked!

I turned the corner to see a patio door. I saw purple hair. Paul. I went to investigate. I expected to see Dawn with him, but she was nowhere to be found. _**Ugh, what is that smell? **_I thought. I looked closer to find Paul and some people smoking. They were smoking weed.

If there's one thing I'll never do, it's smoke weed. It's such a turnoff, and doesn't even seem that great.

I kept on walking around, occasionally stopping to talk or dance. This party actually wasn't too bad. But the alcohol was starting to get to me. I needed to sit down. I took a seat on the couch and stayed there while talking to Brock and Jasmine. A good hour must have passed until I stood up again. Much better. But now I had to use the restroom, so I headed upstairs.

The staircase and upstairs hallway were vaguely familiar. I couldn't figure out where I had seen them before.

_**Wait. Figure? THAT'S IT! This was the hallway from my dream!**_

I could even hear the screams from my dream!

THE SCREAMS?

I leaned on the door that they were coming from to listen in.

"Dawn, drink this and it will be all right!"

"Are you sure? How can I trust you?"

"Please, Dawn!"

It was Dawn and Paul. At first I didn't really think much of it, other than being a little jealous. But then it hit me with full force. It couldn't be!

I ran down the stairs as fast as I could to find her. Where was she? I hadn't much time!

Finally I found her in the living room dancing among the crowd. "Ursula!" I called out.

"H-hay A-esh!" She was pretty drunk.

"Listen, I need you to snap out of it and answer this question. Remember at school when you told me that Paul tried to do things to you when you were dating?"

"Y-yeahaha"

"Well, what exactly did he try to do?" I was desperate for the answer. I hoped it was not what I thought it was.

"Wh-elll wouldn't you like to know?"

"SERIOUSLY, URSULA!" People were beginning to look.

She giggled at bit, but she must have noticed the seriousness in my face and snapped to her senses.

"The b-bugger tried to drug me-eh! He said it would 'b-be more fff-un' and make me do 'what he wanted, w-when he wanted'. Of course, I fff-ought him off hahha."

My face lost all color and my heart stopped. It was what I feared. Damn it.

I had to do something. I ran upstairs back to the room. I tried to open the door, but it was locked.

"HEY! Who's there?" I heard Paul yell.

I ran to the end of the hallway and, in full sprint, threw myself into the door. I somehow managed to break the door down to find a startled Paul and a crying, drowsy Dawn.

My thoughts were as profound as could be.

I didn't even need to think once about it. I prepared a fist, and gave Paul a fully powered hook to the left cheek. Dawn was crying, sitting on the bed.

"Dawn, did you drink it?"

She continued to cry.

"DID YOU DRINK IT?" I was yelling at the top of my lungs.

"Y-yes. He made me. Ash, what's going on?"

Hate. That's all that passed through my body and mind. Paul was still on the floor holding his cheek. I pinned him and gave him four more punches.

"WHY?" I was almost crying. "Why did you do it?"

I wound up for another punch, but he slipped out of my slightly drunk grasp and sprinted out the door. I took about 10 breaths to calm myself down a little, placed the door back up and put a chair to it. I could hear people yell "Whoa!" downstairs, either because Paul was running out or because they saw his bloody face.

I rushed over to a crying Dawn. "Dawn" I said softly. I placed my hands on her shoulders to try and keep her straight. I stared into her eyes. They were so beautiful. _**Snap out of it. This is serious.**_ "Are you alright?" I asked.

"Ash." I could feel her start to weaken. "Ash I think I'm passing out."

I decided it was best to lie her down on the bed. "Dawn, why? Why did you let him do that?"

"Ash, I haven't been very honest with you." She told me. "I think I should tell you. I never really liked Paul in the way everyone thinks. I just felt sorry for him. I can't believe he's done this! That jerk! I only started to date him to…" She hesitated. I wasn't sure if she was passing out or if she was debating telling me. "…make you jealous."

"Make me jealous?"

"You never really seemed interested in me. You seemed awkward around me. I didn't know why I couldn't get through to you. I was getting mad." She began to tear up again. "So I tried to make you jealous."

There were no words to express my feelings, so I just hugged her. Hugging her, I felt no feedback. As I let go, I noticed her eyes were closed.

She was passed out.


	9. Out Cold

**Long time no see!**

**Alright guys, so it's been a while since I last updated.**

**Remember that "exam" period of time that I was talking about? Well that was now.**

**I had no time to update or write for a while. But once I found the time I started writing and finally got the next chapter done!  
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**Exams are pretty much over so I'll have much more time to write and keep on the 1 (maybe 2) chapter-a-week schedule.**

**Keep the reviews coming! Even if you have just one word to say! Say it!**

Chapter 9

It was like looking at a soulless being. I was petrified, and the fact that her hands were cold and she bore no expression on her face didn't exactly comfort me either.

There was a knock on the door. I completely ignored it; I was lost in my fear. The knocks turned into loud bangs.

BANG! BOOM!

"Ash? Ash! Open up!" It was a muffled voice, but Kenny's voice could be recognized in a hurricane.

I decided not to leave the bed, more because of the fact that I didn't think I could leave Dawn's side than anything.

Kenny bashed down the already broken door. He inspected around until his eyes finally met mine. They slowly drifted to the bed. His jaw dropped and stayed dropped. His eyebrows rose, and his face turned purple. "What. Happened?"

"S-she..."

"Ash, what happened?"

"Well, s-she was d-d..."

"WHAT HAPPENED?" He was on the verge of crying.

"KENNY!" I snapped him back. "Kenny, she was drugged by Paul. There's no way he's getting away with this."

Kenny swallowed. His face turned white. "I don't believe this. Ash, is she, you know..."

"Relax, she's not dead. Kenny, you..."

Brock and Jasmine entered.

"Eeeek! Omigosh, Dawn!" Jasmine squealed. She ran to her friend's side.

"Ash, what happened?" Brock asked.

"D-drugged? DRUGGED!" Kenny yelled in disbelief and confusion.

"Paul..." Brock knew it had to be him.

"Kenny, calm down." I said. "This party needs to end, now! Get everyone out. Brock, we'll bring her to my place and take it from there. My mom is out; our parents and hopefully hers won't know about it. I'm sure that's the last thing she'll need when she wakes up."

They both nodded in understanding.

Suddenly, there was a bang at the door. It was Misty. She was so drunk that she walked into the door. "Kenny, why're you..." She noticed the girl lying on the bed. She started... laughing? "H-how do ya fffall asleep at a p-party like this?"

I looked at Kenny. He immediately understood. "C'mon, Misty, let's go back downstairs."

She giggled. "F-finally!"

Kenny escorted her out the door and down the stairs. As Brock and I prepared to carry her, we could hear the "aww" 's and "boo" 's coming from downstairs. People were starting to leave. Kenny must have called the quits on the party.

Within a surprisingly short time, the noise from downstairs died down. Brock and I carried her carefully outside and lied her down in the back three seats of Brock's van. We quickly got in. Brock simply sat there.

"Brock, let's go!" I said.

"Ash, we've got a problem."

Oh god. Not here. Not NOW. Please.

"What?" I inquired.

"Ash, I drank too much tonight. If we get caught by the cops, I'm toast."

The answer to me was clear.

"Brock, we've got a serious problem here. She NEEDS us. We NEED to help her. So what if the cops catch us? They'll bring her to the hospital and she'll get help faster."

"Ash! They'll think that WE drugged her!"

"It a risk we HAVE to take. Please, Brock."

I didn't even care that I was showing Brock major signs of me liking Dawn. Hell, he probably knows by now anyway.

Thankfully he turned forward and stepped on the gas. I exhaled with relief.

I could tell that Brock was still uneasy about driving. He could barely even keep the car straight. At one point, I had to yell at him because he almost went straight through a red light with a car coming.

"Snap out of it, man. You're gonna be fine!"

"Yeah, but still, Ash. I-"

Something was moving in the back of the van. I looked back to see Dawn trying to sit up. She tried and tried, but eventually collapsed and went back into unconsciousness.

"Hurry." I told Brock simply.

After what seemed ages of silence, we finally turned the corner and arrived at my place back in Twinleaf. As Brock turned the car off, I unlocked the door and turned off the alarm. We both carefully carried Dawn up the stairs and into my room. We laid her down on my bed.

"Ash, my mom is calling. I'm going to have to go home if we want to keep this a secret. Can you handle yourself on your own?"

I was saddened that Brock wouldn't be able to help me out on this one, but I knew what had to be done anyway and he was right; he would have to go home to avoid suspicion.

"Brock, go home. I -WE'LL- be fine."

He nodded, took one last look at Dawn, and headed down the stairs and out the door.

He was gone. I was alone. It felt very weird to be alone with her, even if she had no idea what was going on. I obviously wouldn't be sleeping in my bed tonight, so I pulled up a chair. I looked at her; it was the first time I had gotten such a close view of her face. Her skin was perfect; smooth, silky, not a flaw in sight. Her eyes were piercing blue, but not so piercing that she looked like a vampire. Her hair was soft and smooth, no static at all.

_**Is this the perfect woman?**_I thought to myself.

At first I thought of how ridiculous that sounded. There was no such thing as the perfect girl. I took another look at her. Was it really all that ridiculous? I mean, she was nice, beautiful, smart, and so many other things! She just got caught in an unfortunate situation. What more could a guy ask for?

I stared into her closed eyes. Staring at them, it felt like at any moment they were going to shoot open. It was mesmerizing. It was enough to make me close my eyes and dose off...

I had a strange dream that night. Probably due to the alcohol. Flint was walking towards me. He stopped about 4 feet in front of me and threw one of those pokeballs at me. That yellow pokemon that I met the other day came out and smiled at me. Flint sounded nervous as he yelled at me.

"Y-you can have that one. Hey, do you wanted th-them a-all? You can have 'em! I don't want 'em. I DON'T!"

I was confused. The yellow one jumped on my shoulder. It almost felt natural. He seemed to really like being there. Then I saw two men grab Flint as he yelled:

"I swear I didn't! I don't even have them, see? SEE? ASH!"

I woke up jumping to a start when he yelled my name. As my heart began to settle, I realized it was already morning. I looked around. Dawn was still in my bed, but she was in a totally different position. Not only that, but her hand was resting on my knee. There were two possibilities. Either she woke up in the night and noticed what I'd done for her, or I was just a very lucky man.

At first I worried that I was going to miss school, but then I remembered that we had up until Sunday off because the teachers needed to organize problematic schedules and had meetings to discuss the upcoming year. I couldn't imagine what I would have done if I had school.

I got up, showered, changed, and brought a bowl of cereal back up to my room. I sat down on my chair and pulled out my laptop. I found an e-mail from the soccer coach at school for another tryout. I would definitely be attending that. Hopefully Paul would be too. Sweet revenge.

I was just about to open up another e-mail when I heard a slight chuckle. I quickly closed my laptop to see Dawn staring right back at me. I swear I almost passed out myself when I saw those piercing eyes stare right through mine.

"Mind explaining what's going on?"

There were other things that were more important than an explanation at the time.

"Dawn! How are you feeling?"

"I'm all right. My head hurts a bit and I feel a little sick."

"Dawn, I need to know how far you can remember from last night."

"Last night. There was a party or something, right?"

_**She won't remember anything.**_I thought.

"Yeah. I went with Paul. Or something. Paul. Paul.. Paul..." Her face slowly reddened every time she said his name. I was relieved to see her start remembering everything.

"I can't believe what he did. UNBELIEVABLE."

"What's the furthest thing you can remember?" I asked her.

"You started to punch him and I got nervous, but then it's all just a blur."

I became sad when I remembered everything she said after that point during the party. Was she telling the truth, or were the drugs getting the best of her? I pushed that thought aside, for now.

"Dawn, you passed out. We canned the party. Brock and I carried you to his van and we drove you here so your parents wouldn't find out. Brock went home so his parents wouldn't be suspicious"

Dawn's jaw dropped and her eyes watered. "Ash, you did all that for me?"

"Well, yeah Dawn. I mean you were passed out and all..."

She got up, crying, and hugged me. It was kind of an awkward hug because I was sitting in a chair, but it was a hug nonetheless.

"I'm sorry." She whispered. "I'm sorry that I was mad at you. I really had no reason to be. You were just sticking up for yourself."

_**Darn right.**_I thought. But it was nice to hear her say it like that.

At that point I was trying to convince myself to open up to her and eventually kiss her. I knew the feelings I had for her. And it seemed the perfect time to do so.

"Dawn," she broke free of the hug. Nervously, I continued. "Dawn, I-"

I heard the garage door open from downstairs and I heard a car roll into the garage. My heart stopped, and then beat at 1000 beats per minute.

Mom was home.


	10. Pianos and Punches

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Chapter 10

It's hard to explain the state of panic that I was in. You know that feeling that you get when everything is going right, everything is going your way, and then it all gets ruined because of one small thing? It's kind of like a shocked and stunned feeling at first, and then a sinking feeling as you admit defeat.

That's what I was feeling.

Dawn must have seen the look of worry on my face because she too was beginning to worry.

"W-what is it, Ash?"

An idea popped into my head, but not exactly the greatest one. I opened the window.

"Quick, Dawn! Go onto the roof and jump down into that bush!"

She giggled. "Ash, even if I had all of my strength, I still wouldn't do that."

I smiled and laughed. Yeah, I guess it was a pretty stupid idea. My smiling quickly stopped when I heard a car door slam and the garage door start to close.

I grabbed Dawn and lowered her underneath my bed.

"Ash, what-"

"Shh!" I told her.

I could hear my mom walking up the stairs. I grabbed my laptop and pretended to be using it, even though it was in hibernate. Luckily my mom wasn't so tech-savvy.

"Ash! How many times do I have to tell you to make your bed in the morning!" She told me as she walked in.

"Sorry, mom. I'll do that later."

"Everything went well while I was gone?"

"Yep, no problems."

I prayed that she wasn't catching on the to the fact that I was trying to rush her out of my room. Luckily she didn't, and headed out. I heard her go into the washroom. _**It's now or never.**_I thought.

"Mom! I'm going for a walk to meet up with some friends!" I yelled.

"Okay! Have fun!"

I looked under the bed. Dawn was frowning in confusion. I gave her one last "shh", picked her up, and sprinted down the stairs and out the door.

I sprinted all the way around the block and safely around the corner.

"Ash, I don't get it. Why didn't you just tell your mom that I was there?" Dawn asked me.

The answer was clear to me, but it didn't really seem like the real reason why.

"First of all, you were lying in my bed. Imagine what she would think of that. A teenage girl lying in her son's bed."

She laughed and slapped my arm playfully.

"Ash..."

"Second, she would probably find out what happened and tell your parents."

"Oh, my mom! Ash, what am I gonna tell her? She's probably worried sick about me!"

"Just tell her that you were at May's or at Jasmine's for the night."

She smiled. "Yeah, that would probably work!"

It was weird. A week ago, I couldn't even look at Dawn. But now look at me. I was holding her in my arms, and we were hitting it off! I felt like I was really getting a different vibe from her. I felt more comfortable around her.

"Ash? Dawn? What the hell?"

We looked around to try and find out where the voice was coming from. We saw May across the street running towards us.

"Oh my god, Dawn! I heard about what happened last night! That Paul! How are you feeling?"

We approached a large oak tree. I set Dawn down so that she could rest against the trunk of the tree, and we all sat down.

"Thanks Ash. I feel a lot better, thanks. May, can I ask a favor of you? Do you mind if I tell my parents that I stayed the night at your place?"

"Not at all, go ahead. But where did you stay at night?" She asked Dawn.

Dawn hesitated. "Ash's! I didn't have a choice; I was unconscious! He and Brock really helped me last night. Brought me to his place. Thanks, Ash."

"Anytime." I should have said more than a stupid one-liner, but the conversation carried on.

"So May, where are you headed?"

She also hesitated. "A friend's."

Dawn continued. "Well since you're walking there, I'm assuming that they live near here. Therefore, I know them. Who's?"

She blushed and said quietly "Gary's"

Dawn and I looked at each other smiling.  
>"Well I'll leave you to your business, then. C'mon, Ash, let's go."<p>

Dawn got up and motioned to start walking. Wait, walking. DAWN WAS WALKING!

"Dawn, you can walk?" I asked, surprised.

She was stunned. "O-oh, yeah."

"Then why did you make me-" I stopped. Dawn blushed and closed her eyes.

"Haha!" May got her revenge laugh.

Dawn glared at her and gave her the death stare.

"Alright! I'm leaving!" May said goodbye and headed in the other direction.

I was about to ask Dawn about what had just happened when she interrupted.

"C'mon, Ash. The trip'll be a lot easier now that I'm walking. At least for you." She blushed a little.

Dawn was definitely acting differently. She was more talkative, less shy, and more outgoing. Maybe she was feeling the same way I was. Maybe she was becoming more comfortable around me. Everything was slowly unfolding.

But nothing could have prepared me for what was about to happen.

As we turned the corner to Dawn's house, my jaw dropped. Her house was incredible! A huge mansion surrounded by a black fence. A garden full of flowers, fountains and plants caressed the entrance and front path.

"THIS is your house?" I asked in awe.

"Yeah, why?" She said as if it were nothing.

"It's huge!"

She grabbed my arm and pulled. "C'mon."

The inside was just as good as the outside. To the left, a beautiful grand piano sat in an extraordinarily decorated room. To the right, an awesome stainless-steel kitchen with an island. Straight ahead, two curved staircases that lead to an upstairs. My jaw stayed dropped that whole time and Dawn smiled and shook her head every time she saw me.

I found out another thing that Dawn and I had in common. She also only lived with her mother. Her mother was so rich because she used to be a well-known Pokemon coordinator. I had no idea what a coordinator was at that point so when she told me I just smiled and nodded, and assumed that it was a very prestigious job.

We had a conversation just after Dawn had finished explaining to her mom that she stayed the night at May's.

"So Ash! How do you like Twinleaf so far?" Her mom asked me.

"It's great! It isn't too different from Pallet Town, so it hardly feels like I left home anymore!" Not true. I still got the occasional homesickness, but it was still to early for me to admit it.

"Oh my, the time! I have to get going. Dawn, leave a note if you go anywhere. Nice meeting you, Ash!"

"Okay, mom. Bye!" Dawn said.

"Likewise! Goodbye." I told her.

We were alone again.

"So Dawn, why don't you show me what you can do on that piano." I said smiling.

"Oh no! Definitely not! I'm not even that good!"

"So I carry you around for a night and a morning, but you can't play one simple song for me?"

She smiled and slapped my hand. "Fine."

I sat down on the couch next to the piano not expecting much. Even by the way she opened the piano you could tell she wasn't very experienced.

Boy was I ever wrong.

She started off simple but beautiful. Chords in the right hand accompanied by two 5ths in the left. It caught me by surprise. Then the melody kicked in. It was so beautiful. The way the melody danced with the harmony of the song was unreal. It was enough to make a grown man cry.

I got up. I had to; it was so beautiful. I went to stand behind her playing.

"Dawn, this is beautiful."

"I wrote it for someone." She said while still playing.

"Who?"

She turned around to look me in the eyes. "It's for-"

*BANG* *BANG*

Two knocks on the back door. She immediately stopped and went to go check it out. I followed. But when I saw whom it was, my face turned pale and rage filled up within me.

"Paul? What are you doing here?" Dawn asked opening the door. She looked at me and gave me the "don't do or say anything" look.

"Dawn, I-" Paul saw me and stopped. He gave me a pretty nasty stare, which I returned, and continued. "I came to apologize."

"Oh, so all of a sudden 'sorry' makes up for almost killing someone?"

"Listen, Dawn. I'm sorry about what I did. I was drunk. But Dawn, this stuff has happened between us before and we've made it through. So please, forgive me one more time. I'm sorry."

Dawn turned to look at me and gave me an unreadable look. I had no idea. She turned back to face him.

She raised her arms asking for a hug.

I could feel tears filling up in my eyes from a mixture of hatred and sadness. I couldn't believe how stupid she was being. I was ready to leave.

Paul raised his arms to accept. They both leaned in for the hug. I started to look away, when a quick movement caught my eye. This, I could not believe.

Dawn lowered her arms, made a fist, and punched a vulnerable Paul with arms raised right in the balls, full force. Paul went down hard, panting.

"Get the fuck out of my house, Paul."

I was overwhelmed with joy because of what she had just done. Well played, Dawn.

Paul was struggling on the floor as Dawn yelled more profanities at him.

As I began wiping my previously watery eyes, I heard Paul get up which made me immediately stop. He was angry, very angry, and I was worried. I walked in a little closer to the action.

Paul was breathing heavily, staring at Dawn. "You bitch!" He yelled. He swung full force at Dawn's face. He made disgustingly good contact and knocked her to the floor. She wasn't unconscious, but her face was definitely going to bruise up.

That's it. He just crossed the line. No more "beating him without fighting". No more. I had had enough.

"Hitting girls now, are we Pauly? Let's try this man to man now. See if you like it better."

This was about to get ugly.

**A/N**

**Whoa, crazy stuff, right?**

**Anyways, I'm going to hold a little contest.**

**10 000 points to the first person who can guess the name of the song Dawn was playing on the piano.**

**Leave your guess as a review.**

***Hint* It is a song from the Pokemon anime, and is heard frequently throughout the D/P series.**

**Good Luck! **


	11. Paul's Problems, Flint's Problems

**Hello! Guess what folks, I'm not dead!**

**There are some things I should probably address.**

**I sincerely apologize with the bottom of my heart for the long wait.**

**I honestly thought I had already uploaded a chapter earlier this month, but it had been sitting finished on my computer, so here it is!**

**Everyone gets a free slap for me being an idiot!**

**Hopefully this will never happen again, I'm sorry!**

**I'm going to be gone for a week and a half tomorrow, but I will still keep working while I'm gone.**

**So I should have a chapter up when I get back!**

**So sorry guys, forgive me!**

**I haven't given up on this story, don't worry!**

**Enjoy!**

Chapter 11

I was always liked in Pallet Town. I had no enemies there. Most people I knew were either very good friends, friends, or rarely acquaintances. We all knew each other and got along well with each other, through 15 years.

1 week in this so-far hellhole, and I've already got my first enemy.

Slowly, Paul walked up to me. "Who do you think you are? The next big thing? Face it, you're still just the new kid; always will be in my eyes. You hardly know anyone around here. Stop acting like you're so important. Ever since I first saw you, I knew you were bad news."

The whole time I had my eyes on his fists. He clenched them harder and harder with every breath he took. He continued.

"And you think you can take MY Dawn away from me? We've been friends for years, and lately we've felt more than friendship. I screwed up tonight, but I was drunk. Everyone does stupid things when they're drunk. Dawn's coming back to me. ME!"

I immediately picked up motion in Paul's arms and quickly grabbed his punching arm. I twisted it and pinned him against the wall. He was struggling like crazy. I wound up a punch when I felt resistance. Dawn had grabbed my arm and held it back.

At this point I was very confused, but I decided to let Dawn do whatever it was she wanted to. I stood ready, however.

I watched Dawn approach Paul. As Paul slowly turned around to look at her, she immediately gave him a knee right to the ribs, knocking the wind out of him. Paul fell helplessly to the ground, leaning on the wall.

It was Dawn's turn to talk. "Paul, we may have met when we were 5 years old, but I avoided you for a long while after that. I only started to talk to you last year because I felt sorry for you, despite all the bad things you did. I thought maybe if you had some real friends, you'd act differently. But you didn't. Somehow, I still thought I could change you. So I started to become defensive of you. I was happy when you started dating Ursula. I thought for sure you'd change. But you didn't, and you guys were over soon enough."

Paul got up "Dawn, you don't know the whole story. See we were at that party…"

"I know enough; more than you think I know, Paul. Do you really think I want to 'take you back'? Did you forget that just a minute ago you called me a bitch and punched me in the face? Stop calling me 'yours'. I was never, and will never be. Maybe we did have a thing, maybe not. But one thing's for sure. I'm done with you."

Paul slowly rose to his feet. He looked at her with soft eyes and simply said, "Well, if that's how you feel," and left, defeated.

Dawn turned to me and laughed. "Glad that's over!"

Her laugh turned into a nervous laugh, and eventually she started crying.

It was pretty obvious to me now (and I had a hunch even before then) that she still had some feelings for Paul. Something must have happened between them that I didn't know about. It made me uncomfortable to think about it, so I pushed it aside for the moment.

I sat her down and tried to comfort her.

It was somewhat difficult to do because she was in a fragile state. Even something as simple as "cheer up" could trigger unwanted emotions.

"Hey, Dawn. Let's get out of here. Let's go for a walk."

She looked up, wiped the tears for her eyes, and nodded.

We walked out the door and down her driveway, which honestly felt like an eternity to walk down. Her house still amazed me, despite everything that had just happened.

I lead her to the tree on which we had just previously sat.

"Ash, what do you want to be?" She finally spoke. "When you grow up, I mean."

I marvelled at the question. What did I want to be? Engineer, perhaps? Something to do with sciences? Most likely.

"Probably an engineer. Or something in that field or close to it. I love sciences, what can I say."

She giggled. "You're definitely far from average, Ash. You're something else." She smiled at me. Her smile was returned.

"And you?"

She stared in the distance. "I think…" She started. "I think I want to follow my mom's footsteps and be a coordinator. It sounds like so much fun! I'd really like to try it to see one day." She turned to me again. "What do you think?"

I blushed at her question. Time to look like an idiot.

"Alright, Dawn, I have a confession to make. I honestly have no idea what a coordinator is." I told her shamefully.

She giggled again. "A coordinator is someone who raises pokemon to participate in contests. You do know what a pokemon contest is, right?"

That much I did know, yes.

"Alright, enough teasing. I'm not THAT clueless"

Hmm, pokemon. I had totally forgotten about them. Maybe that's what I would do after all. Nah, It couldn't be. I had no experience with them yet and neither did my family, so how was I supposed to learn? Bad idea.

"Don't you think," Dawn interrupted my train of thought. "It would be amazing to travel the world with pokemon? I mean, travelling the world WITHOUT pokemon would be awesome. Well, that's the life of a coordinator. Doesn't it sound great?"

I answered truthfully. "That sounds incredible!"

I was glad that she was forgetting about what had previously happened and I was soaking in this bonding time we were having together. It was so nice to see her happy once again.

"Hey, isn't that Flint?"

I looked over where she was pointing.

"Wow, he's running fast!"

She was right. Flint was sprinting as fast as he could in our direction. Something about the situation seemed vaguely familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

He sprinted all the way up to us and stopped. He then proceeded to throw one of the those pokeballs at me, and the yellow pokemon that I had previously met emerged from it and smiled at me.

"Hey guys!" He was rushing. "Y-you can have that one. Hey, do you want th-them a-all? You can have 'em! I don't want 'em. I DON'T!"

He threw all the pokeballs at us. The yellow pokemon jumped on my shoulder.

This was the exact dream I had last night!

The yellow pokemon suddenly went back into its pokeball and the pokeballs slowly rolled down a slope that hid them on the other side of the tree. The two men from my dream grabbed Flint.

"I swear I didn't! I don't even have them, see? SEE? ASH!"

I was startled by the mention of my name. "Check him." I mumbled inaudibly.

"Alright, come with us!" The men pushed and pulled Flint.

"CHECK HIM!" I yelled.

They turned and stared at me. One nodded at the other, and they began checking. They didn't find anything.

"This isn't over." The men turned the corner and left.

"W-what just happened?" Dawn asked.

"Ash, remember those pokemon I showed you the other day?" He asked me.

"Yeah…"

"Okay, well they aren't actually my dad's. To be honest, and please don't tell anyone, I illegally bought some pokeballs and used my dad's REAL pokemon to catch them."

My jaw dropped like crazy at the news. I couldn't believe my ears.

"Those guys have been on my tail for a long time now. They've been suspicious. I made my pokemon battle together in the backyard and they heard me. And now here I am." He collected his pokeballs from the other side of the tree. "DON'T tell anyone."

"We won't," Dawn said, "But why? Why did you go out and catch those pokemon when you knew it was illegal? You're underage!"

"I wanna be a pokemon trainer, I really do! And I guess I just couldn't wait any longer to start."

A pokemon trainer? A pokemon trainer…

"What are you going to do when you go to get your starter pokemon and you show up already having pokemon?" Dawn asked.

"I-I dunno. We'll see. I'll see you later." He walked off.

Dawn laughed, amused. "Some people. Let's go get lunch, shall we? I'm starved!"

"Yeah, same here. Where do you want to go?"

"I've got a place in mind." She grabbed my hand and smiled. "I'll lead the way."

We walked hand-in-hand all the way to the restaurant of her choice. The whole time I watched her beautiful blue hair bounce with every step she took. You could say I was the happiest man on Earth, but that would be an understatement.


	12. Ladies, Lunch, Loss, Lust

**Hey folks, finally back home and into things.**

**I know it's long, but bear with me.**

**First thing's first, I wanna get the contest out of the way, which I forgot to do last chapter.**

**No one guessed it! Ah well, more points for me to keep.**

**The song is called "Dawn's theme" or "Hikari's theme".**

**Okay second thing is that I'm thinking of starting a new story.**

**I'll still going to continue this one, though, so don't worry.**

**The story will be about Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum; Lucas, Barry, and Dawn's characters from the Pokemon Adventures manga.**

**It would be a story involving a lot more the Sinnoh region and towns, Team Galactic, Gyms, and, of course Pokemon.**

**It will be more of an adventure story. More of a Pokemon-esque story than a High School fic like this one.**

**The thing is, I wanna know if you guys think that it would be a good idea and if you'd read it.**

**Because I don't want to start a new story that would interfere with this one for nothing, mind you.**

**So just send me a PM or leave a review about your thoughts!**

**Also, keep the reviews rolling! Even if you just want to say hi, or if you wanna tell everyone about how much you love your grandma!**

**Awesome, enjoy guys! **

Chapter 12

"You're SURE you want to go here, Dawn?" I asked her.

"Yep!"

"But, it's so expensive! And it's only lunch!"

"It's my treat. I have to thank you somehow for everything that you've done for me these past few days!"

"I feel guilty. It'll pour money right out of you!"

She smiled and shook her head. "You're TOO nice sometimes. C'mon!"

She brought me to pretty much the most expensive restaurant you could find around Twinleaf. You wouldn't find anything more expensive until you got into downtown Jubilife. I felt really bad. Even if she WAS rich and even if she could probably just ask her mom for money and she would gladly supply, I hated being a money-hassle to others. I'd much rather pay with my own money, which I didn't have on me at the moment, unfortunately.

We sat down at a two-seated table near the window.

"Okay, order anything you want." Dawn immediately told me.

"Jesus! 7 bucks for an appetizer salad! Geez, Dawn, I'm going to run you bankrupt!"

She laughed. "Enough! Stop being so polite! Can't you just accept the fact that I'm trying to thank you for something you did for me and just order some food?"

I prepared my next comeback. "Well, a simple thank you..."

She grabbed and held my hand that was resting on the table. "Ash, what you and Brock did for me was unreal. Seriously. I can never thank you enough. No one's ever done something so nice for me. Not even..."

She trailed off for about a second, and then immediately snapped back into things. "Never mind. Anyways, what are you having?"

She stared down at her menu. I continued to look at her. Eventually, she wondered why I wasn't answering and looked up.

"Hmm?"

"Not even who?" I asked.

Her mouth opened a little and her face blushed. She leaned further back.

"What do you mean? Oh, it doesn't matter. Just stupid stuff. I think I'll have the salmon..."

I looked out the window. I asked myself if I wanted to do this, because the outcome was unpredictable. I took a deep breath, and decided to go for it.

"It's Paul, isn't it?"

Her eyebrows raised and her eyes widened, but her face remained blushed. She stared me in the eyes.

"Ugh, that asshole? Don't even get me started about him. He's..."

"Dawn, enough." I interrupted. "Seriously. What happened between you and Paul? Don't deny. I know something went down."

"Ash, you already know everything. I only talked to him because I felt sorry for him..."

"Dawn, we both know that's not true. Wanna know how you can REALLY thank me? Tell me. What happened between you two?"

It was her turn to look out the window. I knew I had hit her where it hurts.

"I'm sorry for being so upfront and demanding about this." I told her. "But I know something's hurting you inside. I hate to see you like this. And I'm nearly certain he's got something to do with it."

She turned and looked in my eyes. Her eyes were filled with defeat and anxiety. "Okay." She whispered nearly inaudibly.

"It's true that I only started to talk to Paul last year because I felt sorry for him. He became my prized possession because I thought I could change him forever. But I haven't been completely truthful."

She looked deeper into me, then looked down. "Paul and I..." She looked up. "We..." She suddenly stopped. She quickly got up out of her chair. "Why am I even telling you this?" She yelled. "You're still just the new kid!"

She stormed out. "Dawn!" I yelled. To no avail.

I sat alone at the table. Maybe it was too early to ask about these things. What a huge mistake that was.

The waitress came up to me.

"Can I start you off with a drink?" She asked.

"Nah, sorry. I was just leaving."

I started back home. Walking home, I thought about how stupid I was. I had only recently met Dawn and I had already started to get into her business. But it was strange. I felt like I HAD to get into her business, like I had to protect her. Something was obviously bothering her and I tried to help her. Maybe it wasn't such a bad thing to do after all.

"Whoa, is that Ash?" A voice yelled from behind me. That voice was unmistakably Brock's deep voice.

I turned to find my predictions were correct.

"Ash, how's Dawn doing? Do you know? Is she still at your place?" He asked me.

"She's alright. She's up and walking. Ah, she went... home? I think..."

"Wow! That's great news. Hey, I really gotta get home! See ya tomorrow at school! Don't forget, second day of tryouts tomorrow!"

Ugh. I had totally forgotten about school. Just another place to suffer for about 6 hours. At least I'll be seeing everyone again. But I'll be seeing Paul too. Great...

"See ya, Brock!" We said our goodbyes.

I finally arrived home, and it was around mid-afternoon. My mom was still hanging around. I watched a little TV, but soon enough it was already time for dinner. I had a delicious penne pasta prepared by my mom. It was great.

But it wasn't good enough to make me forget about everything that had happened today. Dawn was still, as always, in the back of my mind. I couldn't stand her being mad at me. It was driving me crazy. And the looks that my mom was giving me at the dinner table weren't helping at all. She always seemed to know when something was bothered me.

After dinner, I did some last-minute homework for school the next day. I couldn't believe that I had forgotten about all the homework that I had to do! Then again, the long weekend felt like an eternity with all that had happened, which made it pretty easy to forget. And even if I did remember, I doubted that I would have done it anytime before. I would have probably left it to do last-minute, like I was doing anyways.

After the homework was finally done, I started to pack my schoolbag. I wasn't feeling any better, mind you. I still felt very lousy about her being mad at me.

I decided to call it an early day and go to bed. I needed tomorrow to come as fast as possible, because at least I would have some friends to talk to. I wanted to catch up with May, Jasmine, Kenny. Hell, I was even looking forward to seeing Misty and Gary! I was most excited to see Brock and chat about the soccer team, for which tryouts were being held after school. Paul, well, I think everyone could live without him.

My mood was starting to lift. I started to laugh at myself. The only reason I felt so depressed was because some girl walked away from lunch today. Lunch that I wasn't even going to pay for, nor did I plan for, so who cares!

There was a beeping noise near my night table. The phone was off the hook and the busy tone was sounding. Ugh, mom always knocked it over while cleaning. I hung it up and held onto it, thinking. I wasn't going to let anything ruin my mood anymore. I took a deep breath, picked up the phone, and dialed Dawn's number.

I was extremely nervous but confident at the same time. The phone rang once. I waited anxiously for someone to pick up. Twice. Still nothing. Three times. I was beginning to become upset, because I knew if no one picked up, I would never be able to build up to courage to do something like this again. Four times. I threw the phone against my night table in anger.

Immediately afterwards, a faint voice came from the phone. "_Whoa, hello?"_

I quickly scrambled to pick up the phone. "Yea, uhhh, Hello? Dawn?"

"Hello! Who's this?"

"Um, it's ah, Ash."

She hesitated. "O-Oh! Ash!"

I couldn't think of what to say. There was silence for about 5 seconds. Finally, Dawn spoke.

"Okay I'm going to be completely honest with you Ash, I've been thinking, and you didn't deserve what I did to you today. I'm really sorry. It was out of place."

Yes! I was so relieved "To be honest, yeah, it really wa-"

She cut me off. "If you really want to know so badly, I think I can trust you. You're right; Paul and I sort of had a 'thing'. But I'm not going to tell you over the phone. Tomorrow, at school. I'll tell you. I promise."

"Dawn? Hello?" The line went dead. She hung up.

You could say that I was very happy at that moment. Why wouldn't I be? Dawn was no longer mad at me, and I was finally going to find out what was going on between Dawn and Paul. Tomorrow was going to be so much sweeter, so it was even more reason to hit the hay. I hung up the phone, brushed my teeth, changed, hopped into bed, and turned off the lights.


	13. Keeping Secrets, Promises, and Vows!

**Yo!**

**I'm back! I stayed up late tonight to finish this chapter for you guys!**

**So thanks for all the PM's about the new story, but I don't think I'll go through with it.**

**Too much work for me right now.**

**Maybe later I'll start it, I dunno. We'll see.**

**But for now, enjoy this chapter. Lotsa crazy stuff to come in this story!**

**Reviews, reviews, ahh you know the drill.**

**Stay strong my beautifuls,**

**Your beloved Cacooks7**

I woke up early the next morning from a rather strange dream. Something about an infernape; a pokemon that I had once read about. It was in my house, raging and destroying everything it could find. I tried to stop it, but it was going crazy.

I rolled over to look at the clock. 6:30 am. I also noticed that there was no little light to indicate that the alarm was on. I had forgotten to put it on! I guess in my excitement last night, it never crossed my mind. I felt lucky to have woken up so early.

I felt very refreshed, probably because I went to bed so early, so I decided to get up, even though it was nearly an hour before my alarm was supposed to go off. I opened my blinds and opened the window. It was a beautiful warm and sunny day. Very rare for September around Sinnoh, being more northern than other regions.

It was one of those days where I just felt great. You know those days when you feel well rested, you get up to see a beautiful sunny day, and you just feel generally happy? Well, I was having that kind of day.

After getting dressed and getting ready, I went downstairs to eat. I entered the kitchen and was startled to see my mom sitting at the table.

"Mom! What are you doing up so early?" I asked.

"Important meeting this morning, honey. Boy, you seem so much happier than you did last night."

"Hehe, do I? Guess it must be the weather or something."

"Yeah..." She said sarcastically as she stared me down.

I ignored her and grabbed some toast.

"Back to school, eh?" She said.

"Yeah, but it's not so bad. I'm pretty stoked to see May and my new friends too."

"Don't forget about what you actually go to school for!" She said with a smirk.

"Oh, yeah, that. Edu-ma-cation or something, right?" I said jokingly.

"Oh you're just hilarious, aren't you?" She teased. "Okay, I think it's time for me to go. I might not be home for supper tonight, so order something or eat some frozen food, okay?"

"Kay. Bye, ma!"

I finished my breakfast alone and decided to watch some TV to help the time pass. I watched sports highlights for a little before getting bored of stupid baseball. I changed the channel. There was a woman dressed up in a very nice dress. She was in a stadium and thousand of spectators watched on. She threw a pokeball. The capsule exploded, and glitter and confetti shot out, as well as a luxray. It was spectacular! The title came on. "Sinnoh Annual Grand Festival Pokemon Contest". Pokemon contest? Isn't that what Dawn wanted to do? I decided to watch on.

She yelled a command to the luxray, and an electric shock came shooting out of it. She yelled something else, and the luxray stomped. The ground began to crack and chunks went flying up. The ground and the electricity acted positive-negative to each other, creating a spectacular simulated "thunderstorm". I couldn't believe that any of this was real. Could a pokemon really do that?

Commercial break. I really wanted to watch on, but it was time for me to go. I packed my books and my soccer stuff, and headed out to the bus stop.

I waited at the stop for only about two minutes before the bus came. _**Still cutting it tight **_I thought. I hopped on and saw Gary sitting at the same spot at the back. I gave him a head-nod and he returned one. I took a seat near the window and planted myself. Routinely, May got on at the next stop. I waved hello, expecting her to come and sit beside me, but she simply smiled, nodded, and walked right past me. She grabbed the seat next to Gary. I turned around, smiled, and laughed to myself. I knew what was going on there.

Dawn didn't get on at her stop again. I laughed to myself once again. I should have expected this to happen. Whenever something happened, she never seemed to be around for a while. This was not unusual behavior at all for Dawn. So, I spent the bus ride with my iPod plugged in, listening to music and looking out the window.

Arriving at school, I unplugged and wrapped up my headphones. I got off the bus and looked around. I took in the beautiful day. I couldn't feel any better. I walked into the school and headed down the stairs to my locker.

I opened my locker, and was shocked when it slammed shut without me touching it. Gary had slammed it shut.

"Hey, Ash. Crazy long weekend, huh?"

"Hey, Gary."

"Yeah, kinda funny when you think of it all."

"Not really…"

"Awh, man. You just don't have a sense of humor." He told me.

"What's funny about getting drugged?"

"Everything. Look I don't have time for this conversation anymore. Later." He ran up the stairs.

"But you started it!" I yelled after him.

I shook my head. Eh, it was just regular Gary, I suppose.

I put away my bag and my books, and headed upstairs to hopefully find Brock and talk about after school today. I climbed the stairs to the main floor, and walked around the corner. No sign of Brock yet.

I turned the other corner to hear very loud talking. It was Paul and his stupid crew. I wanted to avoid him, but he locked eyes with me before I could backtrack.

"Ready to get absolutely pummeled today after school?" He yelled at me.

"It's soccer. What's the worst you can do to me?" I asked smartly.

"You'll see. Don't act like you don't remember what happened. I certainly didn't. And neither did she."

"You talked to her?" I asked, shocked.

"Just like I said. She came flocking back to me."

I turned the corner in disbelief. How could she be so naïve and stupid as to talk to him again? Or was Paul trying to trick me? All the way, I could hear them yelling at me. _"Yeah, that's right! Run away, pussy!"_ I didn't let them get to me.

I was just about to head into the next stairwell, not really thinking about where I was going because of recent events, albeit, when I felt a tug on my right wrist. I completely lost my balance and I was pulled into a dark, empty classroom.

"Whoa!" I yelled.

The figure closed the door and it was pitch black for a moment. As my eyes began to adjust to the little light coming from the small door window, the figure opened the lights and I was blinded. After a few seconds, I saw jet blue hair and piercing blue eyes.

"Dawn?" I asked.

"Hi, Ash. Sorry." She said, quietly.

"Wh-why? Why are you doing this?" I asked her.

"This needs to be kept completely confidential. I haven't told anyone outside of my family about this. Can I trust you?"

"YES!" I said sincerely. "Of course!"

I was extremely nervous and anxious. What was she about to tell me?

"I'm keeping my promise, Ash. So please just listen and don't ask questions"

This was beginning to get very tense.

"Okay."

"I told you that Paul and I met at a young age. That was true. I told you that I avoided him for a long while after that. That was true. But I haven't been completely truthful with you, Ash."

I was listening with all ears. I really wanted her to talk faster and cut to the chase, but she said no interrupting, so I sat patiently.

"I changed the story around a little, so did Paul, and I left out a huge detail, so did Paul. You see, Paul and I come from the two wealthiest families in the region. We met at a young age because we were fated to. And we were both forced to keep a huge secret from the public. The reason why I can't get over him so easily, the reason why I can't let him go is…"

She turned, almost contemplating whether she should tell me or not. She stayed with her back turned for a while. When she turned back to face me, a single tear trickled down her right cheek.

"Ash, Paul and I were arranged to marry."

**WHAT?**


	14. More Than Just Broken Hearts!

**OMG guys I'm finally back!**

**Long wait once again, yatta yatta yatta.**

**My excuse THIS time is that university finally started. I had absolutely NO time to write. I was overwhelmed with moving tasks, study work, and sports.**

**I guess you could say I pretty much had no life/free time for the past month or so.**

**But I got some! So here is the continuation!**

**Watashi wa anata no subete o aishite (means I love all of you, just a 'lil japanese lesson for you guys)**

**Please keep the reviews coming. I love constructive criticism and I love to hear your thoughts on the story. Much appreciated, my beauties. I have no idea why I'm talking like that.**

**-Cacooks7**

Chapter 14

Growing up in Kanto, I had experienced many things in my childhood and early adolescence. At a 5, I witnessed my first pokemon death. My grandfather died when I was 8. I had seen people break bones, get hit by cars, start choking, have seizures, be burned by a flaming pokemon attack, and the list goes on.

But nothing, no experience in the world, could have prepared me for this. I don't think many people have to deal with this type of situation in their lives, anyways. The feeling I was experiencing was completely new. And believe you me, it wasn't a good feeling.

I felt warmer, and started sweating a little. My throat was thick. I felt slightly dizzy, but I was still sitting in my chair, so the threat of falling over was eliminated. Despite this, I decided to get up and start walking.

Dawn was now sitting, and had broken down into more tears. I walked around the back of the classroom, then headed to the front where she was sitting. I had no idea what to say, but the silence carried on for too long.

"That... explains a lot, Dawn." I finally said with a weak voice.

She spoke, but didn't move her head or look up. "He's been wanting to date me for a long time now, but I don't think I love him, Ash. But no matter what I know that I can't avoid him because he'll just keep coming back, and eventually I'll have to give in. And the more I avoid him, the worse he gets. He dated Ursula only to make me jealous because I didn't show any interest in him. And he almost ruined her life. You saw how far he went last weekend. It's only going to get worse from here on."

I watched her cry. I watched her weep and sob into her own hands. I couldn't help but wipe back a single tear of my own. It must have been so hard for her; I couldn't imagine being in such a situation. Being so controlled, no freedom, no choice whatsoever. Having your life partner chosen for you.

I walked to the teacher's desk and grabbed a few tissues. I then proceeded to where Dawn was sitting. I removed her hands from her face, and began wiping the tears from her face.

"Let's get you cleaned up before class starts." I told her.

She opened her eyes and smiled at me. But this wasn't time for one of those strangely intimate moments. I quickly wiped off as much as I could.

"Here, I'll walk you to the washroom so you can fix your makeup."

We exited the class, and I looked around to see if anyone saw us exit. It would be rather suspicious to see us walk out of an empty classroom with the lights turned off. It seemed no one saw.

We turned the corner and she stopped in front of the washroom.

"You go on, Ash, I'll be fine." She told me.

"Are you sure?"

She nodded to reassure me. I nodded, turned, and began walking back downstairs.

"Wait!"

I quickly turned around. Dawn was walking towards me.

"Thanks." She told me. She opened her arms, asking for a hug. I gladly accepted.

It wasn't the best hug I had ever received. It was sort of cold, but I think it was because of the current situation, and because of the news that I had just heard. We let go. She smiled, turned and entered the washroom.

I headed down the stairs back towards my locker, thinking. How is this even possible? How could THEY be arranged for marriage? Of all people, they gave her Paul? She was so depressed and angry, I had to do something, because she hadn't the slightest idea what to do.

My thoughts were interrupted when I saw Brock. I suddenly remembered why I went upstairs in the first place.

"Hey Brock! How's it going?"

"Hey, Ash! Whoa, you okay?" He asked me.

I felt my face redden. "Yeah, why?"

"I dunno, you look worried or spooked or something."

I laughed. "Haha, yeah. Anyways, about soccer, I..."

He interrupted. "I've got news for you about that. Coach told me that he's got his eye on you. So make sure you impress him today. He really thinks you have the potential. Also, show some leadership, man. You were dead silent last tryout!"

_**Yeah, I was still the new kid. Lay off.**_I thought. But I was truly thankful for what he had just told me.

"Thanks so much, Brock! You know I will!"

He smiled at me and walked away. As I turned around, I heard the bell ring. I started towards my locker. Gary was already at his.

"Sup, humorless?"

"Gary, I'm not in the mood."

"What's up your ass?"

"If I told you, I'd probably have to kill you."

"Hahaha, no! Not funny."

"Gary, I'm ser... Ah whatever. See ya later."

The rest of the day went by slowly and awkwardly. Dawn and I did not exchange a single word during our classes together. Personally, I was too scared, and I'm not sure how Dawn felt.

I tried to rub some of it off by having a casual conversation with Jasmine and Misty during music, but we were constantly being yelled at by our teacher. That went badly.

Finally, at the end of the day, I actually had a meaningful conversation with Brock while tying my cleats.

"Be careful, the pitch is a little wet and slippery. Also remember what I told you earlier."

"Gotcha"

I walked out onto the field and grabbed a ball. It was all wet. The field was wet from dew. I looked around to see who was already here.

That's when I saw Dawn. She was sitting alone on the bleachers. She looked so cute by herself, just watching. I smiled to myself, and gave her a little wave. She waved back.

She was one of those people that you never feel sorry for when you see them all alone, because it seems like they don't care and they just do their own thing. They make you feel happy.

The coach called us in. First, we warmed up by doing a few laps and dynamic stretching. Then we did a few drills, with and without cones. Standard stuff. But it was finally time for the scrimmage. And oh what a scrimmage it would be.

I wasn't on Brock's team, unfortunately, but I wasn't going to let that affect my play. Also on the other team was Paul.

I decided to take charge on my team, appointing positions to players. Finally, the game started. Watching in the first few minutes was like watching 5-year-olds play, because the ball was skidding and slipping all over the place. I saw the coach facepalm at our efforts. Finally, after a few minutes, we got the hang of things and started to actually play.

I remembered it being very hard to get past Brock with the ball, as he was the star defender, but getting past Paul in the midfield was a complete joke. In fact, I began to toy around with him by juggling the ball and plopping it over his head, or by putting it between his legs and watching him fall into the mud. All before being stopped by Brock. He was really amazing, that kid.

"Ash, you think you're funny?" Paul asked me during a brief pause in the game as my teammate fetched the ball that went out of play.

"No, I just think I'm just good. Admit it. You're my puppet for today."

"Yeah, we'll see how this finishes."

The ball was back in play, and it was eventually cleared up the field in the air. I jumped to head the ball, and I felt a challenger to my side. Judging by the hair, it was unmistakably Paul. At peak height, I beat him to the ball, because my jump was much higher due to volleyball. But on the way down, I felt him grab just above my wrist, twist it, and pull my arm back. Naturally, the momentum of my body changed and I began falling twisted-arm-first to the ground. He held on until the last moment. I became very nervous because I knew what the outcome was going to be.

I had no time to fix the position of my arm, so my arm hit the ground at a very awkward angle, and my body followed on top. A loud _**"CRACK!" **_shook the field and all the players standing there.

My arm was definitely broken. The wet ground certainly added to the severity of things.

As I rolled over, the pain finally kicked in and began to take my breath away. "Oouuuhhhh"'s were overheard from the players and coaching staff. I heard a loud "EEK!" coming from the stands. Definitely Dawn. I looked up to see her looking away and covering her eyes as she was breathing heavily.

I held in my screams of pain and took a look at my arm. I could visibly see the bone of my wrist. My radius (forearm bone attached to the hand) was definitely broken, as my forearm was disfigured. Disaster.

My anger towards Paul was met with my pain and suffering. For 5 minutes I lay there, in pain, before an ambulance came to bring me to the hospital. I was carried on a stretcher into the ambulance. All the way, people were applauding for my well-being. I looked around and saw everyone, even Brock and Dawn, standing and following me to the ambulance.

"Let me go with him, I'm a close friend." I heard Brock tell the paramedic.

"Alright but that's…"

"Me too, I'm also a close friend." Dawn interrupted.

"I'm sorry, only one."

"Please!" Dawn pleaded.

There was a long pause.

The paramedic looked around. "Alright." He said. "But you'll have to stand; there aren't enough seats for you."

"That's fine."

The ride was long and painful. Brock decided that he would stand, and he kept looking down at my arm with a pale, disgusted face. Dawn was sitting and crying at my suffering. I tried to keep a normal face to stop her from worrying; after all, it was only a broken arm. The pain, however, was too much.

I looked over at the surgeon, and I saw him preparing a needle. I could just barely read the box. It read _"anesthetics". _Then he approached me.

"You seem to be in a lot of pain."

"You're not going to put me under, are you?" I asked, worriedly.

"It's for your own benefit. Sir, please try to relax."

"No!" I argued. "It's only a broken arm. There's no need to go to extremes! I'm fine!"

Before I could finish my last few words, the needle had already been injected, and I couldn't keep focus on anything. I lay my head back as I couldn't fight to stay conscious anymore, and let the dream take me away…

I found myself in a forest. As I got up, I, for some reason, decided to begin walking a certain way, as if I had gone there before and knew where I was going. Shortly afterwards, the yellow mouse creature joined me. He was walking with me, on my shoulder! I decided I needed to try and find Flint and return him home.

Immediately after, I heard a voice, coming from seemingly nowhere.

_**Ash, do not return Pikachu to Flint.**_

"What? Why? Even if he stole him, he's Flint's now!" I yelled back at nothing.

_**Understand this, Ash. Pikachu belongs to no one else but you. Pikachu is yours.**_

"Pikachu is not mine!" I yelled.

_**In good time, you will see.**_

"What? See what?" I yelled again.

But no answer. I suddenly fell down and couldn't get back up. The vision of the forest faded, and Pikachu, as I know knew, faded with it, smiling back at me. Everything faded into blackness as I regained my senses. I opened what I remembered to be my _real _eyes and felt a tingling feeling in my arm.

I saw a beige and white blurriness, and I was returning back from the dream world.


	15. Dilemmarm

**Remember me?**

**Haha it's been a while.**

**To those of you who are still interested in reading this story, I'm sorry and I love you.**

**To those of you who don't remember this story, so you went back to re-read it, you're amazing and I love you.**

**To those of you who remember this story but went back to re-read it anyways, you're incredibly amazing and I love you.**

**To all of you, there is MORE TO COME.**

**Enjoy.**

**P.S. Watch this. It's me playing pokemon piano. I know it's pretty bad, I'm not that bad at piano. I was in a rush so I only had 1 try to get it. :(**

**www. youtube . com /watch?v=E6Ivj0x59Qk&list=LLCejLjDqEJ1PsrP9ZOe9ejQ&index=5&feature=plpp_video**

Chapter 15

"…Plenty of rest, and make sure he moves that arm as little as possible."

I saw a man in a white coat, presumably the doctor as I realized I was in a hospital bed, talking to my angry-looking mother.

"Mom?" I called. My voice was deep and weak, as I had just woken up.

"Ash! You're awake. How's your arm feeling?"

I looked down at my arm, which was in a cast.

"Actually fine, I don't feel any pain at all! Look, I can even move it and wiggle my fingers without it hurting!"

"Now Ash let's be reasonable here." The doctor interrupted. "Doing such things will hurt your arm so refrain from moving it too much."

"No, seriously, look!" I started swaying my arm back and forth, and even banging it against my body to show that I was experiencing no pain.

"Stop that! Erm, it must be some strange side effect of the anaesthetics."

I frowned. "Anaesthetics don't have that kind of side effect." I mumbled to myself. Just then, I saw Brock and Dawn walk into the room

"ASH!" They both yelled in unison.

"Hey, guys."

Dawn ran up to me and gave me an awkward hug due to the fact that I was lying down. Brock "aww'ed" and jokingly joined in on the hug.

"Guys! Please don't do that! You could seriously injure his already fragile arm." The doctor butted in.

"OH MY GOD. I SWEAR MY ARM IS FINE!"

I spent another two hours at the hospital before I was finally allowed to go home. Once I got home, I immediately went to my room and sat there.

What was that dream all about? The one about me "owning" that pikachu. I'd been having strange dreams lately, but that one was the weirdest of the weird. And why is it that I felt no pain in my arm?

I decided to give it a test. I started out by slowly removing the cast. No pain. I pulled a little harder. Still nothing. I kept pulling harder and harder. Eventually, I had pulled so hard that I had eventually ripped the cast off. Shocked, I checked out my arm.

Amazingly, it was completely fine! The first thing I noticed was that there was no scar. There should have been at least a cut because my bone had cut right through my skin! Second, my arm was completely straight. It was completely crooked when I had broken it! Last, it felt completely normal. No pain at all!

It was so strange. At this point, I decided to go with it. There was no getting the cast back on, so that was out of the question.

I spent the rest of the day in my room finishing my homework with absolutely no problems writing. How was this possible?

When I heard my mom call me down for dinner, I actually went down the stairs while grabbing the railing with my "broken" hand. I didn't feel anything wrong. My mom freaked out when she saw my cast was off, but I assured her everything was fine. She, as well as I, was dumbfounded as to why this was happening.

The next day at school was very interesting. Everyone was concerned for my well-being, and they were shocked when they saw me with no cast.

"You don't understand how worried I was for you." Dawn told me in math class first period. "Uhhh, well, Brock and I, of course."

"Yeah, I guess it was pretty scary. But I'm actually fine now."

"Are you sure? How is this even possible?"

To be honest, I didn't know! How could I be without a cast after 1 day?

Jasmine and Misty were also on my case during music class.

"It's impossible. Doesn't make sense. Are you sure you're okay?" Misty asked me.

"Yes, I am!" I said, feeling rather annoyed at this point.

And it didn't stop there. Brock, Kenny, May, Gary, hell even Ursula were all on my case about not wearing a cast. I assured them I was fine. My gym coach told me to sit out, even though I begged to play, telling him I was fine.

And lastly came physics. Dawn went to go sit beside Paul, as per her usual seating plan. However, she didn't say a word to him, even when he tried to talk to her. In fact, she even took it so far as to move seats, to the only empty seat, which was next to me. You could say I was totally fine with that.

"You actually had a great tryout yesterday."

"Thanks!"

"Listen, I don't know if you know this, but I saw what I saw."

"..What?"

"Paul definitely hurt you on purpose. I mean there's no doubt in my mind…"

"Oh, THAT. Tell me something that I didn't know."

She froze, stunned and speechless.

"So, you're okay with it?"

I laughed.

"Of course not. But I've got other things on my mind right now. Revenge can be put aside for now."

She smiled. "You're incredible. Hey, you doing anything after school today?"

I felt myself blush. Goddamnit. "H-huh? Oh. Um, nothing I think."

"Kay. You're coming to my place, alright?"

Oh my god. Finally, SHE was inviting me to do something!

"Haha, alright. Why, do you need help with schoolwork or something."

I facepalmed in my head. I probably sounded like such a dork.

"Well, now that you mention it, yes, but I was thinking we could just hang out, you know? We can do both!"

"Sure, I'm down for whatever!"

The lesson started, so we both shut up, but I felt like I was glowing. I was beginning to crack the case of the mysterious girl, and getting her to like me.

When I said that I had other things on my mind, it consisted of three things. One, making the soccer team. Two, figuring out my arm. And three, probably the most important, helping Dawn and getting her out of this "marriage" situation. I was willing to do anything to help her because she was clearly suffering, but I wanted to help her mainly because she and I couldn't stand Paul for our lives.

As the teacher began explaining the lesson, I tried to listen attentively. But I kept feeling the urge to look down at my paper. I looked down, and I just saw my normal notes. I carried on listening. Again, I got a sudden urge. This time, my notes were gone! I brushed it off, and tried listening a third time. Once again, I got the urge to look down at my paper. This time, letters began randomly appearing. I shook my head and rubbed my eyes. Still it was there. I began reading.

_Curious about your arm?_

It faded away, and the next set of letters faded in.

_Tonight, it will all be explained._

Same story.

_Make sure you fall asleep before midnight tonight._

_In good time, you will see._

What. The. Hell?

I remembered hearing "In good time, you will see," from my dream last night. Could they be connected? Probably, they were equally as weird.

The bell rang immediately afterwards.

_**Didn't class just start?**_ I thought to myself.

Apparently not, but that class felt like it was 10 minutes long. I felt someone grab my arm. It was Dawn.

"Okay, so meet me in the back of the school when you're done, okay?"

"Y-yeah. Um, sure thing."

I was so confused and dumbfounded. I literally stood there for a good minute, just staring around, trying to figure out what had just happened.

I quickly headed down to my locker, packed all my stuff, and headed to the back of the school. I waited about three minutes until Dawn finally showed up.

"Dawn, we'll miss the bus! We'd better hurry!"

"Oh, haha! Don't worry. I have my car."

Of course. Rich families, right? I should have known she had her own car.

In fact she did. A beautiful, shining, blue BMW, perfectly parked in all its glory. I couldn't believe it.

"This is YOURS?"

"Yeah, I got it for my birthday."

"I actually hate you." I teased. She giggled and we both hopped in.

I looked at the time. 3:00. I had 9 hours. I was definitely worried, but for now, I just wanted to spend some time with a special girl of mine.


	16. A Two For One

**Hey guys!**

**Don't really have much to say here.**

**Expect the next chapter to be up really soon!**

**Enjoy!**

**Leave a review telling me what you guys think about how the story is developing!**

**-Cacooks7**

Chapter 16

"…And it even has a kind of voice-recognition. Radio on! See?"

"Dawn, all of this showing-off is making me hate you more and more…"

We pulled into Dawn's neighbourhood. The drive to her place was full of teasing, joking, and, of course, her rubbing in the fact that her car was amazing.

As we turned onto her street, I saw someone wearing a black hoodie running down the street we had just turned off of. I couldn't tell who it was, but I didn't think much of it. We pulled into her driveway. She locked her car door and we entered her house.

"So anyways, I was thinking we get the studying done now, then we'll have time to chill, kay?" Dawn inquired.

"Yeah, sure. I'm down for whatever!"

"Okay, but first. We make food. I'm starved!"

She opened up her pantry, and somehow everything in there, even the snacks, looked gourmet. I was starting to think that Dawn's family let their money get to their heads a little bit too much.

She made probably the best noodles I had ever tasted. It wasn't quite pasta, but it wasn't quite Asian noodles. It was sort of a hybrid of both.

_**They'd better be good. **_I thought, while looking at the box. $45 for a small box!

"Okay, can we start with physics, pleeease?" Dawn asked, while getting her books out of her bag and putting them on the table. "'Cuz, I mean, we have a test next week, and I have nooooo idea what the hell he's teaching."

"Haha. Okay. So, in 2-D momentum, you have to remember that momentum is always conserved. So the components of the vectors always add up…"

We studied physics for about an hour, and then we moved onto math. She was actually quite smart; she just needed someone to really sink the ideas in. We were almost finished math. I looked at the clock. It was around 5:45 pm. 6 hours and 15 minutes left…

"So, when you're factoring x3 + 2x2 –3, you…"

All of a sudden, there was a commotion going on outside. Someone was yelling in the distance, and more people gradually starting yelling back. We both shared a glance, but decided not to investigate.

A few minutes later, and the yelling seemed to die down. We continued our studies for a little while. She was finally starting to understand the lesson when it started again. But this time, it was really close, and really bad.

"Dawn, I think we should check it out."

She nodded, but I could tell she was a little scared.

We went outside to find out what all the commotion was. I saw a group of people yelling at someone right in front of Dawn's house in the street. In fact, they were yelling at the man wearing the hoodie!

I went down her driveway. She followed slowly.

"…I'm going to call the cops! I swear to god I'm going to call the cops if I don't kill you first!" One of them yelled.

"Ouuuu. Oh no! Call the cops. Please, don't!" said the hooded man very sarcastically, with a surprisingly familiar voice that I couldn't quite put a face or name on.

I walked down into the street. "Hey, what's going on here?"

The group turned to me. "Nothing, nothing. Go away, kid."

"I'll tell you what's going on." The hooded man said. "Yes, Ash. I'll tell you what's going on. If you tell me how your ARM IS ALREADY HEALED!" The hooded man starting dashing towards me. His hood eventually fell off.

It was Paul!

He darted towards me, so I took a sidestep. He threw a punch at where I was previously. I gabbed his arms, pulled them behind his back, and nailed him to the ground. _**He's got a big mouth, but nothing to back it up with.**_ I thought.

"WHAT'S GOING ON?" I demanded.

"He stole all of our families pokemon!" The first man said. "He stole them and killed them! Look!" He opened his pokeballs, only to reveal pokemon who had been beaten and bruised.

I shook Paul on the ground. "What the HELL, Paul. Is it true?"

"That's not the worst part!" The man continued. "He KIDNAPPED my daughter and is keeping her hostage!"

What. The. Hell?

I heard Dawn gasp in the background. I stared at the man with pity at this news. I couldn't believe my ears. "That's… un-"

I felt Paul slip through my grasp and saw him begin to sprint down the street. I immediately got up and started after him. "Dawn! Call the cops! Tell them everything! DO IT NOW!" I yelled as I ran away.

All I could think of was my rage as I chased him down. How could he do such a thing? It was beyond me. But Paul was not getting away this time. Definitely not getting away.

He was only about 10 metres in front of me. I could see wherever he turned. But it was an even battle. He got ahead at points, and I caught up at points. I chased him down at least 6 streets, and I must have been chasing him for at least 10 minutes.

He finally hit a dead end. He had nowhere to go, so he went up. He began climbing the wall. I had to go after him, so I began climbing too. He actually made it to the top of the wall, and then jumped down. About a second after he jumped down, I heard a loud CRACK and I heard him moan. This was my chance.

As I made it to the top, I saw him. Both his left arm and leg were broken, so there was no way he was getting up. The drop was definitely too high, so I decided to stay posted at the top of the wall and call the cops. I called quickly and told them where we were.

Paul lay there, moaning and groaning. "I'm not going to jail! I won't! My father will do something about this!"

"Don't hold your breath Paul. Now answer my questions, Paul. Who did you take hostage?"

He spit. "Fuck you! I'm not telling you. Plus, you don't know her!"

"Unless you want me to jump and land on your face, asshole, answer my questions. Did you do anything to her? Did you rape her?"

I braced for the answer.

Paul paused for quite a while, until finally answering, "I tried. But I didn't. She's just tied up in my basement."

"And the pokemon. Why did you kill them?"

"Because!" He cried. "I'll never be a pokemon trainer! All of my pokemon ran away from me! I HATE pokemon!"

"So you killed innocent ones?" I couldn't believe this. "You're psycho!" I cried. The sounds of sirens downed out my cries. "You're crazy!"

After returning to Dawn's house, we sat in her living room talking about what had just happened for about 2 hours. We got occasional phone calls from the police station informing us about the situation. On the positive side, the girl was released back to her parents, with hardly a scratch. On the negative side, all the pokemon were confirmed brain dead.

Dawn's mom had just came home. "Oh my gosh, Dawn, Ash, I just heard about what happened! It's horrible! I can't believe Paul would be one of those people. Paul!"

"Yeah, mom. I always knew something about him was wrong."

"Honey, does Ash know?…"

Dawn nodded.

Dawn's mom smiled "I had a feeling you'd tell him. It's okay dear."

She hugged her. "I will do everything I can to make sure the marriage is waved off."

Dawn stood there, shocked. She slowly lifted a smile, and a single tear trickled down her face. She then turned to me.

"Well, we did it!" I smiled. "I told you I'd get it done! Paul's done!"

She ran towards me and kissed me. Our lips locked. This was the right time. It felt like the right time. It was the right time. I finally did it. I finally did it.

Dawn looked right into my eyes. "Ash." She said softly. "We've been through a lot. I'm sorry that I didn't realise this sooner. Ash, do you want to take a chance with me?"

"Yeah, sure. Dating sounds good." I said jokingly to relieve the tension and nervousness from her words. She smiled and we kissed once more.

We watched a short movie for the rest of the time. It was next to complete silence as we watched, but not because we were angry, or awkward, or speechless. I think that none of us wanted to ruin the moment.

Dawn wanted me to stay the night. Whether or not she wanted to have sex with me, I'll never know. But what I did know was that it was already around 8:30, and I only had 3 ½ hours to fall asleep, so I decided to go home, and I told her that I would see her tomorrow at school.

When I got home, my mom interrogated me about what happened. I didn't tell her, and no one knew but Dawn and I, that I chased him down. I didn't need that attention. We had a conversation over dinner that lasted about an hour. Yes, I was actually counting. I really needed to fall asleep on time.

Finally, it was around 10 o'clock. I decided it was time to go to sleep. I brushed my teeth, got ready for bed, shut the lights and tried to sleep. But how was I to fall asleep with everything that happened today? Paul, and Dawn?

It was already 11:00 o'clock and I wasn't even showing any sign of becoming tired. I was thinking too much about what had happened today. How was I not to?

11:30 and still nothing. I was starting to become worried. Suddenly, an idea popped into my head. You know those ideas that seem brilliant when you think of them at night but are completely stupid later? Yeah, one of those.

I headed downstairs into my basement. I got the tranquilizer gun that my mom used back home when we had rodent problems. And, yes, that's right. I tranquilized myself to sleep.

But it worked. I shot myself in my bed, and almost immediately I faded into the dream world once again, where the unknown voice greeted me once again.


	17. Dream On!

**YO! GUYS! I'M BACK!**

**I actually just started a new story on here. It's called "Pokemon University".**

**I think it will be better than this one!**

**Please do me a solid and go check it out, if you don't like it so far, don't worry, you can come back here, this story ain't goin' away!**

**Okay, now this chapter is a little on the dark and somber side of things, but that's only because the story is making a turn!**

**Enjoy!**

Chapter 17

I felt strange. I knew that I was in a dream, but at the same time, everything felt so real. I doubted whether I was dreaming or not. I was in the wilderness, but I was on a path. Huge trees surrounded this path. The nearest sign read "Route 201". Hey! Route 201! I had been here before! The path comes directly from Twinleaf!

Once again, as per my other dreams, a yellow pikachu hopped onto my shoulder, as if I had been its trainer for a very long time. I somehow felt that he was trying to tell me to continue down the path. So I did.

A mysterious figure began to appear in the fog in front of me after only about 10 steps. I jumped at first, but decided to investigate. It was a woman. She had short, light-brown hair and she was fairly tall. "Ash," she said.

Whoa, whoa. That voice! It was HER voice that I had kept hearing in all of my dreams.

"Based on your recent actions, you will have to make a great decision in the upcoming future. You will need to choose your destiny. As a trainer, or not."

"What do you mean?" I inquired.

"Ash, this pikachu is YOURS. It has been given to you by a certain professor who is in a high position in the pokemon association. Legally, we cannot give it to you because you are not of age. However, you may obtain your license early within our ranks. Ash, we require your assistance. You are one of the chosen ones to become a pokemon trainer under the pokemon council in order to defeat the evil-doers, Team Galactic and Team Rocket."

I looked over at the pikachu on my shoulder. He gave me a re-assuring pat.

"Okay," I finally replied. "This is a lot to take in, so I'm just going to ask as many questions as I can before I wake up."

"As you wish." She replied.

"How are you in my dream? And why are you manipulating my mind all the time?"

"A dream-entry device. Quite a common device over here. Ash, this is the safest way to contact you. No one, including the bad guys, can track or record us."

"How do I know this is real and I'm not actually dreaming this?"

"Oh come on, Ash. I literally SPOKE to you in your head during class when you were AWAKE."

"True. Why me, though?"

"Ash, we have our reasons. But instead, prove to us that we made the right decision in picking you!"

"Wait, I've heard of both teams, why will I be fighting both?"

"Ash, this is the whole reason we are recruiting young trainers. They have teamed up and are planning something huge, something unimaginable, in Sinnoh."

"So what do I do from here?"

"We will come to you, you have no need to worry."

"Okay, last question. You said that I will have to make a great decision because of my recent actions. What is that all about?"

"Ash, on your travels as a trainer, you will not be traveling alone. You will have a companion. However, you do not get to choose this person. This person is chosen for you."

"Okay..." I started to worry a little.

"Ash, would you like to meet your traveling companion?"

"Yeah, that'd be great!"

I couldn't wait to see who it was. I imagined some huge, bulk, experienced trainer in his twenties to walk through the fog. Boy, was I ever wrong.

A beautiful girl, around my age, with long blonde hair in a ponytail, blue eyes, and slightly shorter than me came through.

"Hi, I'm Yellow." She said softly.

"Ahh, your name is a colour?" I asked. Probably a poor choice of first words. However, she began to blush and looked down at the floor.

"Y-yes"

"You still haven't caught on yet, huh?" The woman asked.

"Naw, shoot."

"Ash, Yellow over here will become your traveling companion. Now, as I understand, you recently acquired a girlfriend, yes?"

Oh no. No no no no. Not Dawn. Please don't tell me this will screw up my relationship with Dawn. I worked SO hard for that.

"Um, yes." I said.

"Mhm. Well, this is where the decision comes in. Ash, in order to fulfill your destiny as a pokemon trainer, you will rarely get to see your girlfriend for a long while. And you will be traveling with Yellow over here for a long while, which I'm sure she will not be very happy about."

Yellow was blushing like crazy at this point. I mean, it was obvious that she liked me, or at least found me attractive. I mean, I wasn't DEVASTATED about that; she was cute and seemed nice and sweet, but I didn't know how that would affect our travels. Oh yeah, and did I mention, I HAVE A GIRLFRIEND?

"Ash, you must choose. Your girlfriend, or your destiny as a pokemon trainer. You must decide before your next sleep, as that is when I, and Yellow, will appear next. Think hard and logically about this."

"Wait! Am I allowed to tell people about this?"

"You parents only. I guess you could tell your girlfriend to ease the pain, but you're one lucky man if she believes you!"

Everything began to fade, like in the other dreams, and I regained consciousness. It was still dark. I had a pounding headache for some reason. I sat up. Oh yeah, that's why I had a headache. The tranquilizer lay on my bed. I was glad that my mom didn't come into my room and see that. I decided it would be a good idea to put that away right now and get some Advil.

As I headed downstairs quietly, I couldn't help but think about my dream. Wow, becoming a pokemon trainer would be awesome! Now that's living the life! And that pikachu seemed so cute, strong, funny, and awesome! Travel the world, battle bad guys, become stronger, and train pokemon; that's every kid's dream job!

But Dawn. Dawn. We had just started a relationship that I had worked so hard to get going. I mean, would she believe me if I told her? And would she want to keep going?

But I think it would be selfish to refuse this offer. I'm sure that those two teams are up to no good; that's for certain. People's lives are most likely at stake. the council must have had their reasons for choosing me, and I will have some duties to fulfill there. To give all that up just because of one girl...

But it isn't just one girl, it is the girl I love and cherish. Ugh, this is so difficult!

It was very hard to make up my mind, and I literally spent so many hours on my couch staring at the walls and thinking that my mom started to worry.

But eventually I had made my decision. I chose what I thought was the right thing to do. There will be several consequences to my decision, but it is necessary.

I was to become a pokemon trainer. And if Dawn couldn't realize the importance of what I was doing, well then maybe she wasn't right for me.


	18. Trust

**Yay! New chapter already!**

**Man. I don't know how much you guys are into like anime and manga and stuff, but I just recently got into the new craze everyone's talking about.**

**It's called "Katawa Shoujo". It's been in production for 5 years. I know it's an 18+ Visual Novel (which is basically an interactive novel, pretty much a game) so a lot of you won't play/read it on here (but I mean, who's 18+ gonna stop, right?)**

**But it's so strange. I mean, it's one of those things where you actually get emotionally attached to the characters, right?**

**But the VN itself is just too much. And I watch people on youtube, and so many of them actually CRY about the characters and the story! One guy literally broke up with his real girlfriend because he was so emotionally attached to a girl in the VN! :O.**

**I mean, I read it. I'm not done yet. I'm following Emi. Maybe I'll follow others if I have time. It's true; you develop an emotional attachment to the person when you're playing. You actually begin to CARE about them and enjoy their presence. But once you stop playing, shouldn't it go away as you think and do other things?**

**I guess the moral is if you get too sucked in to a fictional world, you begin to lose perception of reality, which I think is a problem for a lot of people, and it leads to depression. It's okay to obsess. Do it to your heart's content. Just make sure you're not living too much in a fantasy world, because or else reality will fade away from you, and you will never want to return. People just don't want to deal with reality, and they withdraw too much into their own fictional worlds where everything is better. And that's not okay.**

**Anyways, just a bit of late-night thinking, I guess.**

**So this chapter was written while listening to VERY sad music, as you will probably be able to tell.**

**Please keep on reviewing, it'd be great. I have no idea how many of you are still reading, or are still interested in reading this story. But I'll continue anyways.**

**Sorry for the sadness and what not. There had to be at least ONE like this :).**

Chapter 18

Truly, that dream was going to change my life. I mean, how could it not? But how could I convince people? It was next to impossible, as the woman said. I wasn't even going to attempt to try and convince my mom for the moment.

Finally it started to lighten up outside, and it was time to go to school. I woke up from the dream at around 4:30 am, and I sat on my couch for about two hours, thinking, until I had finally reached my conclusion of becoming a pokemon trainer.

After eating and getting ready, I headed to the bus stop, and waited a few minutes before it came. When I got on, I caught May's eyes looking into mine. She had a worried look on her face. As I got closer, she stood and opened her mouth, but I waved her off before she could speak, indicating that it was still too early to talk about yesterday's incidents. I finally took my normal seat.

Dawn got on the bus right after. I wasn't even worried about the fact that people didn't know that we were "together" yet. I was worried about the fact that I didn't even think about how I was going to explain everything to her!

She came and sat directly beside me. She put her arm around mine and rested her head on my shoulder. I was getting strange looks from May, but she was too engulfed in her conversation with Gary to really care. I started to get hot and slightly sweaty.

"Hi." She said softly.

"Hey." I smiled back.

"Hmm, you left a little too fast last night. But the movie was cute."

Holy crap. NO WAY was I telling her just yet. No way! It was too hard to do, and I was unprepared. But I was determined to do it before the day ended. It was going to be really hard, but it HAD to be done.

"Yeah, I'm sorry I had to leave, too. But I slept well. You?"

Slept well, haha. Not exactly, but I still had to make conversation somehow.

"Yeah, I slept alright," she said. "Would have been better with you there, for sure."

Ah wonderful. How the HELL was I supposed to tell her now?

We just had our little small talk all the way until we entered the school. I clearly decided I wasn't going to tell her just yet. She came down with me to my locker, which just kept making me more nervous.

"Haha, well I don't know about that, but you definitely need to help me more with homework." Dawn said, continuing our conversation.

I was just about to reply, when I caught a familiar face in the corner of my eye. It was Brock! And he was with Jasmine. No, really, I mean he was WITH Jasmine.

"Hey, uhh, Brock, Jasmine." I was slightly confused at them holding hands.

"Haha!" He laughed at my confusion. "I see you're confused, but it's true! Jasmine and I are dating! Since yesterday!"

Jasmine started to blush a little. I mean, you couldn't say that this was unexpected, because after all, they went to Kenny's party last week together, but it was surprising nonetheless.

Dawn chuckled. Oh no. This was bad.

"That's really funny! Because…"

I pulled Dawn away by grabbing her by her wrist. It almost seemed cartoonish. Jasmine and Brock stared, confused. No. It had to be now. Before anyone found out. Prepared or not, now was the time. It had to be done.

"Jeez, Ash, what's with you?" She whined.

"Look, Dawn, I really don't know how to tell this to you, or how you'll take this, or if you'll believe this, but… look, we just need to talk." I crumbled.

"You're supposed to say THAT first…" She replied impatiently.

"Serious, Dawn." I had no idea how to go about this, so for some reason I thought it was best just to spew out as much as I could. "Look, we just got together. And I'm really happy about that. There's nothing I would ever do to change our relationship together. I worked so hard just to get you to acknowledge me, and to get you away from Paul. There's no doubt in my mind about that. For some reason, you meant everything to me, and I couldn't help that feeling. I went with it."

She was flattered, but that feeling would not last.

"And we're together now. We haven't exactly known each other for long, but we connect. We've been through a lot. But I'm sorry Dawn." Her face immediately changed from happy to worried. "I don't know how much we'll be able to see each other. Because… well, I won't be attending school for a while. And I'd really like to tell you why, but you'd honestly think I was mentally ill if I told you."

She said nothing. She just stood there. Finally, "Tell me." She said. No. She didn't say. She DEMANDED.

"Okay, but this is the honest truth I'm telling you, Dawn. I'm not lying." She nodded. "Well, I've been chosen to become a pokemon trainer. At this age. There's something big happening, Dawn, and I don't know what it quite is, but there's serious danger. And I don't know why they've picked me, but they said that they have their reasons."

"You 'don't know what it is'? And who's 'they'?" She asked.

"Well, not much has been revealed. Dawn, well, I have to embark on a journey to train and become stronger. I wont be around for a while, but I promise I'll come back as soon as possible!"

"And I can't come along?" She inquired impatiently again.

"Well, they only let you travel in pairs, and, well, I was already given a partner. She's really great though, don't worry!"

"Oh. She's sooo great, huh! Well, I didn't realize…"

Crap, why did I say that!

"No, Dawn, c'mon! I didn't mean it like that. She's a professional! You know that nothing would ever happen between us!"

"Well, how will I know that, if…" She started to tear up. "You won't even let me come with you?"

"Dawn…" I put my hand on her shoulder, and felt like crying too. But I held my composure. She threw my hand off.

"I don't even know what you're telling me. Or if you're even telling the truth. Because all it sounds like to me is a bunch of bullcrap. Ash, you should never have even kissed me if you felt this way, and if you already had feelings for someone else! Why would you put me through this if you felt this way!"

She was REALLY crying now. So was I at this point. I don't care. Call me a wimp. Call me a pussy. I don't care. This was the worst thing that could possibly happen to me. And I had to enforce it. Because it was the right thing to do. But it hurt so badly.

"Dawn! I don't have feelings for this girl! I just met her last night! You would be my first choice by a longshot if I could choose whom to travel with! Dawn, I love you! I am NOT breaking up with you!" I pleaded.

"Yeah, well you might as well be!" She screamed. She began to run off. I grabbed her by the arm.

"Dawn. Can't you trust me?" I begged one last time.

"Ash, I really want to." She turned around and smiled. "But my heart tells me I shouldn't. Maybe we've been through a lot, Ash, but after all, like you said, we hardly know each other. Just when I thought it was all right, Ash." She ran off for good this time.

I didn't even bother calling her or going after her. I guess my predictions were right. Maybe Dawn wasn't the one for me, after all. She couldn't trust me. This was my most important test, and she didn't trust me. I ached and pained inside. No words could describe what I felt like. I pinned up against a locker and sunk down to the ground, clutching my hair. I sat there, defeated. This was truly the end here. Nothing left anymore.

"Oh, Ash! Great news!" Brock said as he approached with Jasmine. "Coach talked to me. You made the soccer team! He really thinks you're good! He just wants to know how your arm is!"

Not great news at all to me at the moment. Nothing could be great news. Depression took over. I was finished here. Jubilife High. What was the point of returning now? For friends I hardly even knew? For a girlfriend who hated me?

"It's fine." I mumbled.


	19. Training Train!

**Hey guys! New chapter!**

**Random news, so I'm going to Japan for 1 month this summer! It's gonna be awesomeee!**

**Luckily I already speak the language, and it was NOT easy to learn.**

**Anyways, I'm saying this because I bought an apartment for me to stay in a while back and I just got the billing and stuff in today, so I guess that sort of reminded me of this story, so I wrote!Just for you guys! :3**

**REVIEWS! I find that I'm not getting nearly as many as before, I dunno if people are losing interest in the story or what :(**

**LEAVE ONE! Please? :)**

**Oh yeah, and I know Yellow is really OOC, she's normally shy and kinda wimpy I guess, but just go with it! Cool? Cool!**

**Enjoy!**

Chapter 19

_**2 days later**_

I stared out the window at the moving world around me. It was dusk in the Sinnoh countryside. Everything was moving so fast; I barely had enough time to focus in on a single object. Things just passed right on by. This kind of reminded me of my life at the moment. Now that I though of it, it hadn't been very long since I moved from Pallet Town. Not even a month. And so much had already happened that I'd barely had any time to simply stay and focus in on one moment. Everything had happened so fast, it was almost unbearable.

I thought back of the life I had to give up. My mom's reaction to when I told her. School, the soccer team, all my friends. Sacrificed for the greater good. These weren't happy thoughts at all.

And then I thought of the incident 2 days ago. Maybe if Brock and Jasmine hadn't forced it upon me to tell her, things would have gone much more smoothly. Speaking of them, they seemed to have been doing just fine. They were going strong. Huh. They were lasting even longer than Dawn and I did. More than one day, at least.

But I had cooled down since that incident. It didn't affect me as much as it did a few days ago. Not that I didn't think about it a lot. I still thought about it, and even then I was thinking about how wrongly it went. And about how Dawn was taking it. Was she thinking of me? Was she as sad as I was? What was she doing?

"Hey…"

Huh? I suddenly escaped my thoughts and averted from looking out the window. It was dark now anyway. I then remembered that I was on a train ride to the "training base". And the person who called my name was none other than the beautiful Yellow. We were the only two in the cabin, and she was sitting across from me. I quickly turned around to see her starting at me, worriedly. How long was she staring at me for? I was looking out the window for quite a while…

She just stared worriedly for quite a while, but then closed her eyes and put on a slight smile.

"Don't worry. She'll come around."

"Huh?" I think I had an idea of what she was talking about, though.

"She'll forgive you. I know she will. In time. Actually, I don't think it will take her all that long to realize. So cheer up."

"H-how do you know all this?" I was still really confused.

I was hard to hold a normal conversation with Yellow. Up to then, I could pretty much only ask questions. I guess that's because I considered her to be my superior in every single way. She was my mission partner. She was an extremely talented trainer already. By far the best I'd ever seen. She was also very beautiful. And smarter than me, for sure. I treated her as if she was some sort of noble class, I guess. And I don't even know why.

"Hm." She looked out the window, still smiling. "Woman's instinct? Just trust me on this one, Ash." She looked down and blushed. "No woman in her right mind would pass you up so easily."

Huh? I leaned forward to try and get a better look at her face that was pointed downward. Her eyes were closed and she remained smiling. Red blush marks were visible below her eyes. She…

"GAH!" She immediately retaliated after opening her eyes and seeing my face so close.

"WHOA! SORRY! Sorry!" I apologized.

"I-it's nothing." She waved me off nervously. "No problem. N-no, n-no…"

What the heck. This girl was strange. She seems almost adult-like, mature, wise, all of the above and below. But sometimes, just around me, she acts strange. Like right now. My face wasn't all that close. Anyone else wouldn't have reacted so strangely. I had a hunch… nah, that couldn't be it. She's a professional, after all.

"By the way," she added, still retaliating and avoiding eye contact with me, "you should check your phone. It might be worth your while." She cracked a small smile.

I tilted my head at her, and decided to do what she said. I pulled out my piece-of-crap phone (I never really was big on cell phones) and, sure enough, to my amazement, 1 new message.

"You'll learn to trust my instincts as my partner, even when they don't make sense. Hehe." She giggled with her hand to her mouth.

GAH. Now was not the time for her to be cute and stuff. And what the heck was she talking about.

I scrolled my way to my inbox. The message was from some unknown number. It read: "_We need to talk. Urgent. Get off at the next stop._"

Hmm. Who could it be from? Well, whoever it was, they knew I was on the train. Probably someone from the council.

"Hey, how far 'till…"

"About 4 minutes from now" Yellow cut me off.

"Wha… how did you…"

"Hehe. Now do you see why you should 'trust my instincts'?"

Man. She was some girl.

So, as the train stopped at the next stop, I got up to get off. Yellow followed. I couldn't really stop her, and I kinda wanted her to come, just because I didn't know what heck was going on.

"Excuse me," I addressed one of the crewmembers. "How long before the train starts going again?"

"15 minutes." He replied sternly. I had to remember that everyone aboard this train was professional and experienced. I was pretty much the only person going who was a newbie, for the time being.

"Thank you very much."

I got off the train and sat on a nearby bench. I didn't know who or where I was meeting; I just assumed the person would come for me. Yellow didn't follow, however. She leaned nearby the train, watching me sitting on occasion, otherwise just staring down the tracks.

I sat there for about 5 minutes, waiting. I was sort of sceptical; I always thought someone would be behind me. But no one ever was. Until finally, I could hear heavy breathing behind me. I turned around to see someone hooded in an ugly, brown robe. It seemed like water was leaking out of the hood, and it was dripping all over me.

"GWAH!" I quickly scooted over. It actually didn't feel like water. I didn't know what the hell it was.

"S-sorry." A familiar, queasy, female voice notified me that this girl was crying. I could see a strand of pinkish hair. Who did I know that had pink hair?

Before I knew it, the person jumped onto me, causing me to fall down and lie across the bench. Finally, her hood fell off and I was able to see her face.

IT WAS DAWN! But, she had pink hair! Why? No matter, she was bawling her eyes out. She began lightly (almost desperately) punching me in the chest and sobbing.

"Ummm…" I didn't know what to say. I looked over to see Yellow staring, confused. She met my gaze and quickly looked away, blushing, but smiling, once again.

"Y-you, y-you, y-you…" I didn't know what to do here. I couldn't hold her close like I wanted to, because she was punching, um, no, more like tapping is how you would describe it, at my chest, so I just lay there and let her speak.

"Y-you…idiot." She said that last word so softly. I didn't expect her to say that. "W-why? Why did y-you leave m-me? Couldn't you s-see that I was i-in pain? Waahhh!"

She was crying and sobbing like crazy. "Dawn, you basically shut me down the other day. You said I could never be trusted."

"Ash! You don't understand! I-I didn't mean w-what I said! I d-didn't want to say a-any of it! I was told t-to say it!"

"What?" Even Yellow turned fast and not-so-secretively eavesdropped in on what was going on.

"Y-yeah. Ash, that night you left my house, someone came into my room at night. They said they were from the council. They explained everything to me. Your mission, everything. I knew about it at about the same time that you found out."

"So you already knew?" I couldn't believe this.

"They t-told me convincing you to g-go would be much easier if w-we broke up. At first I refused, they even offered me money, but t-then…" her voice became queasy again, "t-they threatened me. They said it was for the greater good, so I had no choice to accept. I thought it was the right thing."

"IMPOSSIBLE!" Yellow blurted out and approached us.

"Oh, you m-must be Y-yellow!" Dawn smiled. "Nice to meet you!"

Yellow was confused at a point, but then continued. "Someone from the council would NEVER do that!"

"I know that now…" Dawn mumbled.

"Huh?" Yellow and I both didn't understand.

"Last night, she came into my dream. The same one from your dream. She explained to me how that wasn't them. She explained how it must have been a work of Team Galactic trying to weaken you emotionally."

"I knew it!" Yellow exclaimed.

"Wait wait! But the girl from my dream said that I had to choose! I had to choose between being trainer and having a girlfriend!"

"I know…" Dawn replied, to my astonishment. "…But that was because she didn't think that I'd believe you. But now that I'm actually a PART of this, there's no way I couldn't believe!"

"Oh! Wait, you're a part of this? Does that mean…"

She smiled at me. "Yup. * sniff *. Since I know everything, she asked me to come along. I'm becoming one of your travelling companions, too!"

I caught Yellow roll her eyes from my peripheral vision. I don't know whether she was annoyed to now have TWO amateurs with her, or something else… NAH! Like I said, she was a professional.

"They've got spies everywhere, Ash!" Dawn continued. "I was told to dye my hair just in order to find you and talk to you about this! They'd recognize me! Apparently I'm well-known around Galactic!"

Ah. So that's why her hair is pink. It looks nice on her.

"Ash…" She began crying again. "I-I'm sorry! I-I didn't m-mean anything that I s-said! Of c-course I t-trust you!" She snuggled in closer, her tears beginning to fall. Jeez, we were still lying on this stupid bench. "I w-would never over-react like that honestly! A-and I would n-never accuse y-you of cheating so e-easily! E-especially after j-just one day!"

She snuggled in as close as possible, her tears now wetting my jacket. "I'm sorry, s-sorry, sorry…"

"Hey…" I whispered, and laid a kiss on the top of her head "Let's get back on that train now. And we'll get your hair back to normal in no time."

She nodded and I picked her up.

"Hm." Yellow mumbled. "I told you, didn't I, Ash? Soon enough?"

"Yeah, yeah, trust your instincts, don't rub it in…"

Yellow giggled.

I loved this. Yellow was an awesome, experienced, somewhat strange for some reason, trainer that I was excited to learn from. And now that I'd gotten my girl back, and she was coming along, everything was perfect. For now.

God knows what troubles were ahead on my journey as a trainer.

We sat back down on the train, now three in the cabin. It was completely dark outside when it left. Dawn was sleeping on my shoulder, tired from her long day of stress and crying.

"Hey, Yellow?"

"Hm?"

"Why do you carry that sword around with you? On your back?"

It's something I had noticed from the start, but was way to afraid to say anything about it.

"Oh this? Hm. It's been in my family for generations. It's a scimitar. Very quick, very powerful. You two'll probably end up getting swords of your own when you become good enough trainers. Whenever you fight evil organizations, it always goes further beyond pokemon battles, know that."

"O-oh!"

Yellow could obviously see the look of worry on my face, as she placed her hand on my shoulder.

"Hehe. Don't worry. You've got me. I'll train you…" she paused to look at Dawn, and lowered her head. "…both of you… to become the best possible trainers you can."

"Ha! Thanks, Yellow."

What a strange woman indeed.


	20. Camp, Cave, COLLAPSE!

**Aha! Ummm, hi.**

**It's been so long I probably have to introduce myself all over again.**

**Anyways, if you're reading this after sticking with it for so long, thanks. Really. That's all I can say. You're amazing.**

**Sorry for being away. I have my reasons, but really they're excuses.**

**ENJOY!**

Chapter 20

_Pounding. That's all I knew. Pounding in my head. I didn't know anything else. I couldn't see, hear, feel, or smell. All I knew was that my head was pounding. I had no memory of what just happened, what time it was, where I was. Nothing. My head just kept on pounding. I tried my hardest to open my eyes. A slight crack opened. I still couldn't see anything. I had no senses. The only thing I knew was this pounding sensation._

_Suddenly, my senses kick-started. A flash of light peered through the small opening of my eyelids. It was too bright to tell anything. Loud noises shouted in the distance. And the pounding continued._

_My vision cleared. Where was I? The walls were very high, and there was a hole where the ceiling should have been. I could see the sky above me. Did I fall from there?_

_"ASH! GET UP! KEEP FIGHTING!"_

_I heard this in my head, and I was pretty freaked out until I realised that I was in a cave and it was just an echo. It was a familiar woman's voice. I began to remember everything._

_And this was where it all started. Right here. Right now._

* * *

><p>After getting off the train, there was still a ways to walk before we got to the training centre. Luckily Yellow knew her stuff. In fact, the first thing Yellow did was bring us to a barbershop. I laughed pretty hard when I saw this, and soon enough Yellow joined in. Dawn was relieved, but didn't find this funny.<p>

We walked for about an hour after that, Dawn's hair now back to normal. It passed by pretty quickly, which was surprising given the fact that no one said a word. It was awkwardly quiet. I mean AWKWARD.

When we finally arrived, all I could do was stare in awe. Firstly, we had to cross a very tight bridge over an extremely long drop. It was as if we were in a cartoon. You know, those bridges that are tied to two wooden stakes at both sides? The ones that sway back and forth and seem to be ready to collapse at any given moment? Yeah, those exactly.

Then there was the gate. The gate was disgustingly huge, and well armed. Four guards on the bottom, two on top. Each muscular in their own respect. Each with a knife. Each with a gun. Intimidation at its finest. Just what was I getting myself into?

When we finally got in, I realised that I would soon come to love this place. I mean, the first thing I saw were beach volleyball courts. C'mon. Isn't that a good sign?

Yellow showed us our rooms. They were high-class. Strange, why would someone need marble sinks, a 40-inch TV, and a queen-sized bed at a training camp? No matter, I'm not complaining. Dawn and I both gave each other looks of despair when Yellow told us that we weren't allowed to stay more than one person in a room. We both frowned, but Yellow giggled, seemingly satisfied with our reactions.

We ate a fantastic dinner together. We were introduced to the president of the organization, the chief officer, and many more important people.

At the end of the day, I finally got to meet my partner who I would come to call Pikachu. We weren't allowed to give our pokemon special names under the command of the organization. I don't know why.

But I loved every second of it. It seemed so natural to meet him. He propped up onto my shoulder, just like in the dreams. I felt like I had owned him for a while, and I assumed he felt the same based on his actions.

He headed back to the pokemon centre, and I headed back to my room. I was going to get a good night's rest before my first official day of training.

But this is where the story gets complicated.

The rest of my stay at the camp was a complete blur. We were given performance-enhancing drugs every morning from the first day. One of the side effects of the drug was altered short-term memory. Basically, as long as you kept taking the drug, you would become strong and smarter, but you would have trouble remembering things unrelated to your performance as a trainer, such as what you had eaten for breakfast, what time you went to bed, etc.

But did we ever learn a lot. I we stay for about two or three weeks; I'm not 100% sure. But I learned more in that time than 17 years as a student. It was amazing. I'm not sure if it was due to the drugs, or simply the amazing staff and trainers. From what I can remember, I loved that place.

The last two days were when we stopped taking the drugs. It was because we no longer trained or learned, we simply prepared. My memory was much better then.

The plan was simple. We were going to infiltrate the enemy's HQ the next day, before they have the chance to carry out their plans. Find out whatever information we need, and finish them off. It sounds like a blind attack to any bystander, but it was very well organized.

I remember meeting Dawn first at breakfast in the morning. She had her Piplup with her. It was the pokemon that was chosen for her. I thought it suited her well. He had her enthusiasm.

"Eggs again?" She teased.

"I love eggs. So? Kill me." I joked.

"Ah." She pouted and looked upwards. "You have eggs every morning. Don't you wanna change it up?" She said this while stuffing french toast in my face.

"H-hey! Haha! Stop! Mmmmfff!"

"Isn't it good? Mmmm!"

"Good morning"

Yellow said this emotionlessly. She had just woken up, and wanted nothing to do with our early morning shenanigans.

This made me wonder whether she had attended high school or not, like Dawn and me. I mean, I only knew her as a professional. She had a certain serious side to her almost constantly. But she also showed me that other side of her, too. A side that I, for one, really enjoyed. But it was only to me. She was as professional as ever with everyone else.

She walked off to eat with some other people.

Dawn turned and smiled. "Ash, let's go for a walk after this!"

Piplup and Pikachu were already good friends. Dawn and I were together all the time, so they must have taken a liking to each other quickly. We walked around the campus. It was actually quite scenic. A lot of trees, paths, all that beautiful nature.

"So Ash, what are your orders for tomorrow?" Dawn asked.

"Well, I'm going in through the Cave Entrance. How about you?"

"I'm going through the 'West Wall'. I dunno where that is."

"Aw, we're on opposite sides. Guess you can't win 'em all, huh?"

We both joked, but simply by listening to us you could tell we were nervous. There was no guarantee of coming back. You could easily be captured, interrogated, tortured, even killed (although the chances were unlikely). We were aware of the risks.

"Wow. It's a pretty scary thought, Ash."

I stopped.

"What's this all about now?"

"I was just thinking. It's pretty scary. I mean, people could get seriously hurt. And there's no knowing what they'll do to us!"

"W-well…"

"But that's just it." She interrupted. "We can't think too hard about these things. We just have to realize the sacrifice we're making. And we have to think of the greater good. ASH!" She called out loudly. "We're doing this for the greater good, aren't we?"

This totally wasn't like her. I stood there dumbfounded. She had quite a big smile on her face, but you could tell she was hiding back fear, anger, anxiety.

"Yes." It was all I could say.

* * *

><p>As Dawn set off with her crew, I set off with mine. Dawn was off to the "West Wall", which was on the complete opposite side of where I was going. Our groups were huge, about thirty or more people per group. And there were a total of four groups. Everyone had their pokemon with them, so naturally Pikachu came with me. Unfortunately, the only person I knew was Yellow, but I was fine with that. She was probably the best person to help me.<p>

The Cave Entrance was a hole in the rocks, nothing more, nothing less. It was so small, and it was a tight squeeze. We each had to go in one at a time. But once we got in, it was actually rather tall and spacious, but dark due to the small entrance. After walking for a short while, lights on the walls of the cave illuminated the walkway, reminding you that this was a man-made entrance to a top-secret headquarters, and anyone or anything could jump out at anytime.

Our first challenge was met early on, but it was nothing big. Two patrol officers were on duty, but they didn't have any pokemon. Nor did they have communication devices to warn HQ of anything. They were rather useless. It was 2 against 30. We easily took them over and tied them up.

There was a lot of walking. It was a long cave! Every time I caught a glimpse of Yellow's bouncing blonde hair, I tried to talk to her, but she would just walk faster. I didn't get her.

Our second challenge. Same situation, except there were four officers instead of two. Same story. We tied them up just the same. 4 against 30 is hardly better than 2 against 30.

I quickly walked up towards Yellow.

"Hey, what the hell's going on, Yellow?"

"Focus on the mission, Ash." She said, raising her nose in the air, not even looking in my direction.

I grabbed her shoulder.

"No! What the hell's going on? You promised! You said you'd make me… ah us… into the best possible trainers you could. But you haven't done a thing! I wanna know why!"

She slowly turned. I couldn't read the look in her eyes. It was the first time I'd seen them looking directly at me in a while.

"Ash, you would never…"

"YELLOW! LOOK OUT!" A voice called out from behind us.

As I turned my head to try and find the danger, I caught a glimpse of the tied-up officers. One of them had pressed a button. This was bad. I feared the worst.

Sure enough, my predictions were right. A HUGE bang came from the top of the cave. It was deafening. I grabbed Yellow and tried to run to a clearing, but another bang came from behind us. The only way to go was down.

I remember the drop. It felt like an eternity. I tried to let go of Yellow's hand, but she gripped my arm even tighter, causing me to pull her down with me. No matter. We were both falling, so whether she held me or not made no difference. My final thought was about Dawn. I wondered if she was going through such dangers as I was. I think my mind was preparing to go into worry mode, when blackness hit.

I had hit the bottom of something.

_Pounding. That's all I knew. Pounding in my head._


End file.
